Books Gems that stood the test of time Wits University Press published its first book The National Resources of South Africa by RA Lehfeldt, in conjunction with Longmans Green of London in 1922. It became the first university press in South Africa. Wits’ historian Bruce Murray writes that it also published the highly successful “Bantu Treasury Series”, launched in 1935 as a “series of literary gems in the Bantu languages” edited by Professor Clement Doke (DLitt 1925, LLD honoris causa 1975) and later by Professor Desmond Cole (BA 1949, BA Hons 1950, MA 1952, DLitt honoris causa 1988). The first dictionary, which Dr Vilakazi and Professor Doke collaborated on and first published in the 1940s, is still considered the most important dictionary of English and isiZulu today. Wits Press is re-issuing these foundational texts as the African Treasury Series to highlight the importance of indigenous languages and celebrate the early giants of African literature.
INKONDLO KAZULU BY BW VILAKAZI WITS UNIVERSIT Y PRESS, 2022
Inkondlo kaZulu (Zulu Poems) is the first volume of poetry by alumnus Dr Benedict Vilakazi (MA 1938, DLitt 1946), which was first published in 1935. Professor Mpume Zondi, from the University of Pretoria, writes it was the first book of poems ever published in isiZulu and “contains superb nature poems and also reflects Vilakazi’s contact with Western modernity. As both a traditional imbongi (bard) and a forward-looking poet who could fuse Western poetic forms with Zulu izibongo (praise poetry), he used his writings to express his resistance to the realities of capitalist exploitation of African labour and the appalling injustices of the migrant labour system.” 90 W I T S R E V I E W
A M A L’ E Z U L U BY BW VILAKAZI WITS UNIVERSIT Y PRESS, 2021
Amal’ezulu (Zulu Horizons), first published in 1945, was written during the 10 years Dr Vilakazi spent living in Johannesburg, in “exile” from his birthplace, KwaZulu-Natal. The poems in this collection represent a turning point in his life; they express yearnings for the beloved land, animals and ancestral spirits of his rural home, as well as expressions of deep disillusionment with the urban life he encountered in the “City of Gold”. In these poems he assumes the role of the voice of the voiceless and gives poignant expression to the stoic endurance experienced by labourers.
