Mazisi Kunene - Why today’s Google Doodle is marking South African poet and anti-apartheid campaigner

Why today’s Google Doodle is marking South African poet and anti-apartheid campaigner.

Mazisi Kunene was a South African poet best known for his poem ‘Emperor Shaka the Great’ (Photo: Google)

• Mazisi Kunene His work explores his nation’s culture, religion and history in the context of colonialism, apartheid and slavery.

• Mazisi Kunene, in full Mazisi Raymond Kunene, (born May 12, 1930, Durban, S.Af.—died Aug. 11, 2006, Durban), South African-born poet, whose work reflects the influences of traditional Zulu poets.

Today’s Google Doodle celebrates Mazisi Kunene, an anti-apartheid activist and South African poet laureate, who could had been ninety two today.

Why today’s Google Doodle is marking South African poet and anti-apartheid campaigner

Kunene’s paintings recorded the records of the Zulu humans and their traditions, the maintenance of which he encouraged for passionately during his life.

He wrote a number of his seminal works withinside the UK, wherein he fled into exile after the South African authorities violently repressed the resistance movement.

Here’s what you want to know.

Why did Google select this?

Mazisi Kunene changed into born on 12 May 1930 in Durban, in an japanese province now referred to as KwaZulu-Natal. As a child, he cherished writing quick tales and poetry in Zulu.

By age 11, he changed into publishing his writings in nearby newspapers and magazines. As he grew older, he have become a sturdy advise for the maintenance of indigenous Zulu poetic traditions.

His master’s thesis considerably critiqued how Western literary traditions have been diluting Zulu literature.

At the start of apartheid, Kunene used his works to resist the government’s racist segregation system.

When South African government cracked down on the resistance movement in the late 50s, exiling Kunene, he fled to the UK (and later the USA), where he helped start the anti-apartheid movement.

During this time, his work was banned in South Africa.

What is he legendary for?

In exile, Kunene went on to publish monumental works of literature adore “Emperor Shaka the Great,” “Anthem of the Decades” ANd “The Ancestors and therefore the the} Sacred Mountain”.

His work explores African nationn culture, faith and history within the context of colonialism, social policy and slavery.

In 1975, Kunene became an African literature faculty member at University of California, Los Angeles, wherever he tutored for nearly 2 decades. He also served as a cultural authority to UN agency throughout this time.

Post-apartheid, Kunene came to South Africa to continue writing in isiZulu. In 1993, UN agency worthy him as Africa’s poet. He later additionally became the primary poet laureate of democratic South Africa.

What happened to him?

Mazisi Kunene died on eleven August 2006 in Durban. His gift lives on not solely in his poetry, however also the Mazisi Kunene Foundation Trust, that is devoted to nurturing Africa’s next generation of literary talent.