The Second Liberation

With to-the-point wit, craft and acuity, in his first book, Mphiliseni Mthimkhulu launches a series of distinguished and sublime poems that hinge on history, politics, language, love and identity as he intertwines them with daily life.

The work in this book is about a fanciful journey into history, a surreal venture into contemporary politics, an exploration of linguistic versatility and a seething and love, on one hand. On the other, it is a confrontation with the evolution of culture and self-identity that delivers an unpredictable emotional roller-coaster.

These poems that are both in IsiZulu and English, are not an attempt at a translation of each poem from one language to the other. They are deliberately written independently in one or the other language with no relationship and none intended.

Paradoxical as it may sound, just like in the 1879 battle of Isandlwana between the Zulus and the English, so the poems exist in this book side by side, each with a self-determining manifestation.

Each of them gives space to poetic meaning that brings out an almost unconscious individual dialogue to both author and reader.

The style of writing is both fresh and powerful.

Dettagli