Nontsizi Mgqwetho: stranger in town

In the years following the First World War, black South Africans publicly defied white systems of control both in urban centres like Johannesburg, to which many migrated to work on the mines, and in the rural areas. Throughout the country, blacks boycotted stores, mounted strikes, and demonstrated against the pass system. This post-war political activity culminated in the mineworkers' strike of 1920, ‘an event of major significance. Of a total of thirty-five mines, twenty-one had been affected, and not far off a half of the black workforce had participated at some stage’ (Bonner 1979: 274). One of the consequences of the strike was the establishment of a weekly newspaper by the Chamber of Mines (Willan 1984: 251–3): the first issue of Umteteli wa Bantu appeared in May 1920. Umteteli 's contribution to Xhosa literature was considerable until 1956, when it became Umteteli wa Bantu e Goli , changed its policy and adopted a magazine format: its pages were filled with creative writing of the highest order. Two poets were particularly prominent in its early decades. After 1927, a steady stream of historical and cultural articles, gossip and poems flowed from the articulate pen of Nzululwazi, ‘Deep knowledge’, one of a number of pseudonyms employed by S. E. K. Mqhayi, the dominant figure in the history of Xhosa literature.