Mazisi Kunene

Mazisi (Raymond) Kunene (12 May 1930 – 11 August 2006) was a South African poet best known for his translation of the epic Zulu poem Emperor Shaka the Great. While in exile from South Africa's apartheid regime, Kunene was an active supporter and organiser of the anti-apartheid movement in Europe and Africa. He later taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, and become Africa's and South Africa's first poet laureate.

Early life Kunene was born in Durban in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, From very early in his childhood at Amahlongwa on the south coast of Durban, he began writing poetry and short stories in Zulu, and by the age of 11 he was being published in local papers. He 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. as a cultural advisor for UNESCO.

Literary works Kunene wrote and published poetry from very early in his life. His works were written originally in Zulu and then translated into English. In 1969, he wrote an introduction to the translation by John Berger and Anna Bostock of Aimé Césaire's Return to My Native Land.

Anthem of the Decades:A Zulu Epic published in English in 1981, tells the Zulu legend of how death came to humankind. In 1982, Kunene published a second collection of poems titled The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain: Poems containing 100 of his poems.

Late life Kunene returned to South Africa in 1992, where he taught at the University of Natal until his retirement. UNESCO made him Africa's poet laureate in 1993 and in 2005 he became South Africa's first poet laureate.

On 12 May 2022, which would have been Kunene's 92nd birthday, he was commemorated with a Google Doodle.