DILLIBE ONYEAMA

The writing career of Dillibe Onyeama, a Nigerian, has straddled five decades - though he was only born in 1951. Author of the famous book, Nigger at Eton, Onyeama was reputed to be the first Black African to study at that institution (Eton College). He went on to publish over twenty books and has contributed prodigiously to African publishing after returning back to Nigeria.

His other published books, over the decades, include John Bull’s Nigger (1974), African Legend, The Return, Juju (novel) Secret Society, Boomerang (short stories), Notes of a so-called Afro-Saxon, Godfathers of Voodoo, Female Target, The Night Demon, The New Man, Revenge of the Medicine Man, Book of Black Man’s Humour; and God, Sex and the English man (2012). Readers of Onyeama’s books insist that in works like Juju, he matches the best of Eurocentric mystery/thriller fiction.

Studies:

Bearing Witness: Readers, Writers, and the Novel in Nigeria by Wendy Grisworld

MAZISI KUNENE

Mazisi (Raymond) Kunene (1930 – 2006) was an exceedingly distinguished
South African poet best known for his astonishing epic poem (book)
Emperor Shaka the Great. Before his death he was acknowledged as
African, and South African poet laureate.

From a very early age, Kunene began writing poetry and short stories
in Zulu, and later on his output became out of  this world. He studied
at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London and was closely
affiliated with the African National Congress, acknowledged as their
main representative in Europe and the United States in 1962. His works
were written originally in Zulu and then translated into English.
UNESCO made him Africa's poet laureate in 1993, and in 2005 he became
the poet laureate of South Africa.

His published works include:

Zulu Poems (1970) Emperor Shaka the Great: A Zulu Epic (1979) Anthem
of the Decades: A Zulu Epic Dedicated to the Women of Africa (1981)
The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain: Poems (1982), Isibusiso
Sikamhawu, Indida Yamancasakazi, Amalokotho Kanomkhubulwane, Umzwilili
wama-Afrika, Kagiso, Igudu lika Somcabeko.

Studies:

Myth, history and politics in Mazisi Kunene's epic poetry by Ernest
Mathabela 

Orality versus literacy in Mazisi Kunene's Emperor Shaka the Great by
Wole Ogundele )

Literary portraits of Chaka : Thomas Mofolo and Mazisi Kunene by
Charles Bodunde