A Survey of African Poetry in the London Times, Sunday Times, Financial Times, the Times Literary Supplement 1865-1985

Oswald Joseph Mbuyiseni Mtshali: A South African Poet Whose Collection’s Sales Shocked Critics

Oswald Joseph Mbuyiseni Mtshali, a South African poet born in 1940, gained world renown when his first collection of poetry, titled Sounds of Cowhide Drum, was published in 1971 by Oxford University Press, and later reprinted by Third Press in America in 1972. This collection won the Olive Schreiner Prize in 1974. Oswald revealed in an interview with Ursula A. Barnett that “the impetus from his teachers at school” and encouragement from his friend, Lionel Abrahams, a South African poet, inspired him to continue writing and get published.

Hugo Young, in a review titled “Stranger’s Voice” that was published in the May 6, 1973, edition of The Sunday Times, asserts that Mtshali’s work was inspired by lamentations in the newspapers of the absence of African poets. Hugo’s unfounded assumption is confounding because, before Mtshali, there were several African poets of commendable repute. Besides, whoever lamented this ‘absence’ of poets, and what ever newspaper it was, is not stated, so it beats my imagination as a scholar to think that a review published in an acclaimed newspaper as The Sunday Times could make such a strong assertion without any evidence and yet get published. In their review published in The Times Literary Supplement, Muriel Bradbrook and Guy Butler indicate that in 1968 Penguin published a book of South African verses which contained “over fifty poems by Africans.” In addition, Bradbrook and Butler explain that in 1967 Nadine Gordimer and Lionel Abrahams also released a publication titled South African Writing Today which has works by nine Black authors. These included but were not limited to Wole Soyinka, Ousmane Sembene, Kofi Awonoor, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o among others. The existence of these books, therefore, raises doubt about Hugo’s assumptions about the absence of African poets. 

Sounds of Cowhide Drum was published to international acclaim and recognition. Mtshali’s fame was such that in 1973, he, a Black South African, performed at the Poetry International program held annually in London. We should not lose sight of the period in which he was invited to perform; his country was under apartheid, with severe restrictions on Black South Africans, and yet, Mtshali had the privilege to travel and perform at an international program in England. We can only imagine the protocols that were broken to pave a way for him because of his immense talent.

After considering the sales generated after the release of Sounds of Cowhide Drum, Frank Norman in a review considered the work to be “a runaway best-seller among both black and white readers,” and Mtshali became one of the pacesetters not only for future South African poets but also poets the world over. Again, at the 1973 Poetry International program, Mtshali performed alongside internationally acclaimed poets such as W.H. Auden and Allen Ginsberg, both from the USA, among others, at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. This feat reiterates his ingenuity and commitment to the craft.It is quite rare for anyone to achieve overnight success, especially from Mtshali’s background, without much toil and dedication.

In the foreword to Sounds of Cowhide Drum, Nadine Gordimer writes that “the world you will enter through these poems is a black man’s world made by white men.” Her focus is on the poetry and poetics of the collection. Gordimer’s critique sharply contrasts Hugo’s review in which he remarks that “if a South African, therefore, sells 16,000 copies of his first book of poems, it suggests there is either something remarkable about the poet or something peculiarly receptive about the time in which he writes.” Unfortunately, Hugo does not focus on the literary techniques embedded in the poems or ascribe the collection’s fame to the quality of the work. His assertion alludes to the fact that Oswald's fame is attributed to providence and not based on hard work or the creative dexterity at play in writing the poems. Additionally, Dennis Walder’s 1985 critique of Mtshali’s Sounds of Cowhide Drum, titled “Quiet and disquiet” and published in The Times Literary Supplement is similar to Hugo’s, in that he claims that Msthali “established his reputation overnight.” Such claims downplay the creative consistency at play in Mtshali’s work. Mtshali’s achievements may be everything but not ‘overnight’ as Walder seems to suggest.

Western critics and scholars often ascribe the fame and success African writers achieve to anything but hard work and talent. With Eurocentric lenses, they critique African texts as underdeveloped and lacking merit and critical scholarship. Reviews like Hugo’s may have tried to overtly downplay the artistry exhibited by Mtshali, but the success of his publication points otherwise. Besides, one must not lose sight of the fact that Mtshali’s success was achieved during apartheid, a period when the humanity, intelligence, and achievements of Black South Africans were erased.

Mtshali’s next major work Fireflames (1980) dedicated to the “brave school children of Soweto” was banned (Walder 1885, 527). In a comparative review of three south African poets, Patrick Cullinan, Douglas Livingstone, and Oswald Mtshali, titled “Quiet and Disquiet,” Dennis Walder focuses on the merits of Patrick and Douglas’ poetry but makes a sharp U-turn in Mtshali’s instance, and hammers on the weakness in Mtshali’s Fireflames. Walder claims that this weakness led to its banning, and that Fireflames attacked the government and made racist pronouncements. In as much as critical studies may try to overlook ‘colour tags’ or better still ‘race’, it must be asked, under what circumstances does a review of three poets focus on the strength of the first two, both white, and on the weakness of the last one, who happens to be black?

Dennis further explains that the banning of Mthali’s second volume suggests ”a talent misused in the service of laudable aims.” Mtshali’s second volume was banned due to censorship rules by the apartheid government. Just like Sounds of Cowhide Drum, this second volume aimed at bringing to the fore the plights, fears, and insecurities of the youth in Soweto. If this constituted a ‘talent misused’ then we may have to redefine what art is supposed to achieve. African writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Ayi Kwei Armah, Wole Soyinka, and others faced years of persecution and even incarceration due to governmental censorship and disapproval of their works. The apartheid government allowed only the circulation of books that dulled or did not tickle the intelligence of the indigenous South Africans. What, if may we ask, is the role or duty of the educated Black South African if not to rouse the consciousness of the masses to self-worth? Besides, like the members of the negritude movement and the various cultural nationalists in Ghana and Nigeria, what precisely was the poet’s duty if not to air, document, and make known to the rest of the world the plight of their people?

Walder adds that Mtshali aligned himself with the “changing consciousness of his people” and this led Mtshali to abandon “the quieter, ironic mode of his earlier work (that is, Sounds of Cowhide Drum) for rhetorical expostulation.” Describing Sounds of Cowhide Drum as quieter and ironic leaves a lot to be desired because the text achieved unprecedented fame both at home and abroad. Walder’s review presents a juxtaposition of two critical positions; the first is the acceptance of a ‘quieter’ volume vis-a-vis the rejection of the one described as presenting a “rhetorical expostulation”.

Of all the reviews on Mtshali’s work, only Norman’s review titled “African Honeymoon” published in The Sunday Times describes Sounds of Cowhide Drum as “lyrical and powerfully composed. A cry of anguish for the plight of the black man in South Africa … often devastatingly critical of the Vorster regime.” As has been said, until the lion learns to tell his own story, tales of hunting would always glorify the hunter. Africans creating platforms and avenues for critiquing African works is the way forward and this is amply displayed in the African Honeymoon.

Bio:

Akua Agyeiwaa Denkyi-Manieson is a doctoral student in Literary and cultural studies at the Department of English, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She hails from Ghana and specializes in the Gold Coast Novel.

Works Cited

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