In early 1922, the first South African history book in isiZulu was privately published in Pietermaritzburg, making 2022 the 100 year anniversary of the publication of this important work. Abantu Abamnyama, Lapa Bavela Ngakona (The Origins of Black People) was written by Magema Fuze, an important African writer who is little known outside of academic circles. Fuze was the sole author and the first native speaker of isiZulu to publish a book, making Abantu Abamnyama an important piece of South African literary history. As Hlonipha Mokoena, Fuze-biographer, writes:

 Abantu Abamnyama was not a conventional history book. Fuze did not call himself a historian in the sense of someone who is trained to use evidence to write an authoritative account of the past. […] He used stories about the past to explain where the present had come from, and as a pointer to the future. He consciously wrote for a younger generation that, in his view, needed to know about Africa’s past in order to be able to cope with the future in a time of rapid political and social change. (Mokoena, H. 2022. Notes on a Kholwa Writer’s Life: Magema Fuze. In: Kros, C. et al. Archives of Times Past: Conversations about South Africa's Deep History.  (pp. 63-75). Johannesburg: Wits University Press.)

UP Special Collections is very pleased that a first edition copy of this significant publication has been added to the Africana Collection. The volume was found to be part of the open collection of the Faculty of Humanities library, and was transferred to Special Collections this year. The book has been rebound, but the original text block is in excellent condition. We also purchased a copy of Hlonipha Mokoena’s Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual, this year, a useful companion to Abantu Abamnyama, about which more information can be found on the New Books page on the Special Collections webpage.