Abantu Besizwe, The Nation's People, is the first new volume of
Mqhayi's writing to appear in over sixty years. The essays, many of them
enhanced by Mqhayi's incomparable poetry, present South African
personalities and events ranging from the early nineteenth to the
mid-twentieth century, recording climactic battles and intimate
conversations, the growth of national movements and the lives of
lifelong friends. Here you will find Mqhayi's humane and incisive
portraits of men and women, royalty and commoners, the great and the
obscure, black and white, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, and Tswana. This
collection of largely unrecognized material will necessitate a
reassessment of the history of the Xhosa-speaking peoples, establish
Mqhayi's reputation as a significant South African historian, and
confirm his status as a major South African author.
In Xhosa and English.