Samuel Edward Krune Mqhayi, born on 1 December 1875 and died on 29 July 1945, occupies a foundational place in isiXhosa literature and in the intellectual history of South Africa. Poet, novelist, journalist, teacher, editor, translator, cultural historian, and public orator, he was much more than a writer in the narrow modern sense. He belonged to the lineage of the imbongi, the Xhosa praise poet whose task was to re…
“In those six years I learned much respecting Xhosa life, including the refinements of Xhosa language. If I had not been at Kentani for those six years, it seems to me as if I would not have been any help to my nation.”
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, Mystical & Spiritual Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
Born in 1876 amid the lingering shadows of slavery in Tennessee, Charles Frederick White entered a world still scarred by the chains his parents had worn. The oldest of ten children born to formerly enslaved parents, he carried the weight of their hard-won freedom from the very beginning. His family soon migrated northward to Springfield, Illinois, seeking better opportunities in a state that had once sheltered Abrah…
“If you had lived upon scant means, compelled to support yourself, often being physically hungry in an endeavor to satisfy your mental hunger for knowledge”
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, American Poets, Devotional Poets, Nature Poets, Social Justice Poets
Emotional landscape: Anger, Sorrow, Despair
