ABSTRACT
Born in Verulam, near Durban (Natal), in 1946, in a region where the majority of the population consisted of Zulus and Indians, Mafika Gwala grew up in a mixed environment. Gwala was eight years old when the nationalists began separating the ethnic groups. His adolescence was during the period of the institutionalization of apartheid, which led to a radicalization of the younger generation of blacks; and Gwala, like many others, gave up his academic career for the sake of the political struggle against the power structure of the apartheid regime. After matriculating, he enrolled at the University of Zululand. At this time the South African Student Organization (SASO) was founded. Gwala gave up his university studies in order to devote himself to the Black Consciousness movement. He earned his living by various jobs such as legal clerk, secondary-school teacher, factory worker, personal assistant, and publications researcher. Gwala started writing poetry between 1966 and 1967, but his career as a writer began with short stories. There were problems with publication. One of his short stories and his first poems were published in the Classic. While his poems have been published in several anthologies, his short stories have remained mostly unpublished. In the interview with Thengamehlo Ngwenya “Mafika Gwala: Towards a National Culture,” Gwala discusses his fascination for jazz and his love for Miriam Makeba’s song with the same title as the reason why he entitled his first collection Jol’inkomo. From 1970 through 1972 he was in the countryside of Transkei. In this collection there is sometimes an attempt to handle the rural context, and its title was a declaration of solidarity with the rural masses. His best contribution to Black Consciousness and SASO came out during this time. He sees his role as one of awakening consciousness and dismantling the deception of the negative reality.
