OWELE
Sihle Ntuli

July 2025
82pp
200mm x 130mm, with 80mm flaps
ISBN: 978-1-0370-5172-2

is the river an honest mirror of our nature?
are still waters a reflection of us?

A family of rivers flows through the land. Their waters gather, merge and split. But even twins must create their own paths – where do their individual journeys begin, and how far must they travel to their shared destination, the vast and turbulent ocean?

In Owele, Sihle Ntuli meditates on the origins of his family, clan and language through the earthen-toned rivers of the Zulu world.

The history of the land becomes the history of the person – but do rivers flow to a beat as blood does? The answers are not always as clear as the surface suggests.

Shifting between English and isiZulu, Ntuli’s unique, jazz-inflected poetry here reaches a new level of innovation, vulnerability and delight.

Featuring photographs by Samora Chapman.

Sihle Ntuli was born in KwaMashu in 1990. He holds an MA in Classics from Rhodes University, Makhanda, and has lectured at the Universities of Johannesburg and the Free State. He has also held fellowships at the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies and the Centre for Stories, Western Australia.

He is the author of two previous collections of poetry and two chapbooks, including Rumblin’, previously published by uHlanga. He is the winner of the 2024/2025 Diann Blakely Poetry Competition, a 2024 Best of the Net winner, and a former editor of New Contrast.

He lives in Durban.