15 Facts About Mazisi Kunene

Mazisi Kunene was a South African poet best known for his translation of the epic Zulu poem Emperor Shaka the Great.

Mazisi Kunene later taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, and become Africa's and South Africa's first poet laureate.

Mazisi Kunene went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Natal in Zulu and history, and later a Master of Arts in Zulu Poetry.

Mazisi Kunene won a Bantu Literary Competition in 1956 and left for London, England, to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, in 1959.

Mazisi Kunene opposed the apartheid government as the head of the African United Front.

Mazisi Kunene was closely affiliated with the African National Congress, quickly becoming their main representative in Europe and the United States in 1962.

Mazisi Kunene became a professor of African literature at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1975 after lecturing in a number of universities.

Mazisi Kunene remained at UCLA for nearly two decades, retiring in 1992.

Mazisi Kunene wrote and published poetry from very early in his life.

Mazisi Kunene's works were written originally in Zulu and then translated into English.

In 1970, Mazisi Kunene published Zulu Poems, an anthology of poems ranging from "moral reflection to political commentary".

In Emperor Shaka the Great, published in English in 1979, Mazisi Kunene tells the story of the rise of the Zulu people under Shaka.

In 1982, Mazisi Kunene published a second collection of poems titled The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain: Poems containing 100 of his poems.

Mazisi Kunene returned to South Africa in 1992, where he taught at the University of Natal until his retirement.

Mazisi Kunene died aged 76 on 11 August 2006 in Durban, after a lengthy bout with cancer.