The editors wish to express sadness at the passing on Friday, 11 August, of Mazisi Kunene. He was a great poet in both isiZulu and English, in his home country South Africa, his continent Africa, and his places of dwelling in the world during his years of politically enforced exile.

Mazisi Kunene - born in KwaZulu-Natal - was educated at the former University of Natal in Durban. Having left South Africa in 1959 he was active in anti-apartheid politics and was later Professor of African Literature and Languages at the University of California, Los Angeles, until 1993 when he returned to Durban to assume the position as a professor of isiZulu Studies. For his creative and critical achievements he was awarded a D.Litt by the University of Natal.

Kunene's poetry is a unique blend ofZulu tradition and human modernity. His collections include (in his own English translation) Zulu Poems (1970), Emperor Shaka the Great (1979), Anthem of the Decades (1981) and The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain (1982).

Only a fraction of his voluminous writings in isiZulu has so far been published. Collections include Isibusiso sikamhawu (1994),Indida yamancasakazi (1995) and Umzwilili wama-Africa (1996).

Stages of Existence

I watched the rainbow

Advancing with the faces of old women

Who raised their heavy eyes

Like the shadows of magical figures.

I bent the rainbow-rope from the horizon

So that I might tie the earth

So that whatever is passed of the past

May give birth.

Beyond the red boundaries

Is the new lightning of children

Who will grow above

The shadows of old women.

When they have conquered them

They may rest and create new forms

That inspire new life

Making knots for eternity

From which new generations will arise ...

(The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain, 1980)

Hamba kahle Mazisi