UNAM WENA
Mthunzikazi A. Mbungwana

August 2021
88pp
200mm x 130mm
ISBN: 978-0-620-92814-4

Le ncwadi ibhalwe ngesiXhosa. This title is in isiXhosa.

Indlela eza kuwe inamatshungu
Ndibangule kwasa
Kwavalwa nomkhusane.

Imibongo kaMbungwana itsho ngentsholo eyodwa kwisixa semibongo ekhoyo ngesiXhosa. Ilizwi lakhe liyolula libinze kanobom nokuba selitsholozela phantsi.

Le mibongo ithwele ubumbaxa bothando, ubunxadanxada bokuzukisa ikhaya, nenquleqhu eninzi yeenkanuko zomzimba kunye nokusekeka kweminqweno yentliziyo. Akathi gontshi naxa sele ethetha ngemiba yosapho evame ukuba nembali enzima nethe mpa amabibi angasese.

Ubhala isiXhosa esiphilileyo nesisaya kuphila. Le mibongo imnombo unabileyo, itsho ngemifanekiso egqamileyo, yenza umqela ovakalayo kwizithethe ezikhoyo zokumela amalungelo okuziphatha nokuzikhunga.

UMthunzikazi A. Mbungwana yimbongi, unobalisa nomfundisi-ntsapho ongesosigxina kwicandelo lezobuGcisa bokuBhala eYunivesithi iRhodes, apho afumene khona isidanga se-Masters kwi-Creative Writing ngolwimi lwesiXhosa. Imibhalo yakhe igxile kwimixholo equka ikhaya, amaphupha, nobomi bemihla-ngemihla yabantu abathandana ngendlela engacalucaluliyo ngesini. Upapashile kwiijenali kunye neencwadi ezifana noo-: New Contrast, Atlanta Review, Our Words, Our Worlds: Writing on Black South African Women Poets 2008–2018, kunye naku-To breathe into another voice: A South African Anthology of Jazz Poetry. Ngo2015 upapashe incwadi yakhe yokuqala yemibongo, Umnikelo. Uyinzalelwane yase-Upper Indwana, eCala.

Mthunzikazi A. Mbungwana’s poems have a loaded winsomeness that has no parallel in modern isiXhosa poetry. With a remarkably poised voice, Mbungwana makes poems that are as assertive when they are explicit as when they are subtle.

Here is no easy comfort about love’s lasting ramifications, nor the sometimes tender but ultimately stifling idea of home. Nevertheless, Mbungwana captures the giddy ramblings of a desirous heart, as well as delving into the weighty histories of familial love and scandal, brandishing an isiXhosa that is both deeply literary and gloriously vital.

With poems that echo out into each other, and lines insistently rooted in their imagery, Mbungwana finds a way through the eternal and internal contest between the opposing forces of glory and pain, in the process making her own mark in a long and proud poetic tradition.

Mthunzikazi A. Mbungwana is a poet and storyteller. She is a part-time teacher in the Creative Writing Department at Rhodes University, where she also received a Masters in Creative Writing, in isiXhosa. Her writings focus on themes of home, dreams, and everyday black queer life. Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies. In 2015 she self-published her debut chapbook, Umnikelo. She was born in Upper Indwe, Cala.