Mzi mahalo biography books

South African writer, author and poet (born 1949)

Mzi Mahola was a South African writer, author and poet. He was born on 12 February 1949, in Claremont near Durban.^[1] He grew up between Lushington near Seymour and Port Elizabeth, living the Eastern Cape as Mzikayise Winston Mahola.

He died at home in Zwide on 26 August 2023.^[2] Mzi Mahola was his pen name.

Biography

Mzi Mahola was born in Claremont in near Durban in 1949.^[1] He started writing in 1969 at Healdtown High School.

Mzi mahalo biography books

In the 1970s he joined the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). (BCM). He later became a member of a non-racial youth group called Isihlobo Youth Group (Friendship) and which had an emblem of a black and white reef-knot indicating friendship.

Isihlobo Youth Group was a daughter body of the Institute of Race Relations. Mahola was periodically detained and interrogated for his writings. The Special Branch confiscated his first poetry manuscript in August 1975.