Literary Birthday – 12 May – Mazisi Kunene

Mazisi Kunene was born on 12 May 1930 and died on 11 August 2006.

Europe, your foundations
Are laid on rough stone.
Your heart is like cobwebs
That dry in the desert.
Your children fill us with fear:

They are like the young of the puff adder
Who devour the flesh of their parent.

From Europe by Mazisi Kunene

Mazisi Kunene was a South African poet best known for his poem Emperor Shaka the Great. Kunene was part of the anti-apartheid movement in Europe and Africa. He would go on to become Africa’s and South Africa’s poet laureate. He is the author of Anthem of the Decades: A Zulu Epic.

Source for image: Author’s website (http://mazisikunene.com/HOME.html)

by Amanda Patterson

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