NONTSIZI MGQWETTO

Not much in the matter of biographical knowledge is known about this towering South African poet. The name of this amazing poet is under contention. All of her poetry in Umteteli wa Bantu appeared under the name Nontsizi Mgqwetto, except for a prose piece that appeared under the name of Elizabeth Mgqwetto. Jeff Opland, who discovered this poetess, in a chapter devoted to her in his poet book Xhosa Poets and Poetry (1998) spells her name differently as Nontsizi Mgqwetho. In a major essay on the history of the formation of the African National Congress written in Pedi by R. V. Selope Thema, that appeared in fifteen parts in Bantu World over a six-month period, Nontsizi Mgqwetto is mentioned in passing under the last name of Mgqwetho (October 22, 1949). From what R. V. Selope Thema writes, it would seem that Nontsizi Mgqwetto had a sister by the name of Mary Mgqwetho. Perhaps these different spellings have to do with orthographic matters. Jeff Opland in the aforementioned chapter mentions that while Nontsizi Mgqwetto's clan name is given in Umteteli wa Bantu as "Chizama" (confirmed independently by this author), she may have contributed two items in Imvo Zabantsundu in 1897 under the name of "Cizama". All of these uncertainties concerning this remarkable poet are a clear indication that she is still largely hidden from the purview of New African literary and cultural history. Though slightly younger than the great Xhosa poet S. E. K. Mqhayi (1875-1945), she seems to have been contemporaneous with him. The first poem "Imbongi U Chizama" was published on October 23, 1920 issue, and the last poem "Zemk'Inkomo Zetafa--Vula Ndingene! (1928) (1929)" appeared on January 5, 1929. Except for a prose piece that was written in the English language, all of her approximately ninety poems are in the Xhosa language. The example of Nontsizi Mgqwetto is a clear reminder of the fundamental role of women in the making of South literary modernism. Her predecessor in the literary representation of the new era or new age is Lydia Umkasetemba (?- ?), who in all probability founded modern written Zulu prose in the middle of the nineteenth-century. A particular distinctiveness of Nontsizi Mgqwetto is that she seems to be a flare that lights up in a spectacular way with a spectrum of colors the whole topography on which South African literary modernism was enacted. In contrast to her contemporary, Mqhayi, who is profoundly philosophical and spiritual in a paradoxical way, Mgqwetto is deeply lyrical and sparkling. In all sorts of ways, she should be seen as Shelley's skylark, seemingly out of control but constructing an orderly pathway into modernity. It is doubtful whether H. I. E. Dhlomo (1903-1956) or Benedict Wallet Vilakazi (1906-1947) have equaled the power of her lyricism: the affinities between Vilakazi and her are astonishing and fascinating, while the differences are intriguing. Her love of Africa and the invocation of ancestral spirits, Nontsizi Mgqwetto is on par with the Mazisi Kunene (1930- ) of Anthem of the Decades (1981). This extraordinary woman may turn out to have been the true poetic voice of the early period of the New African Movement.