Mzikayise Winston Mahola is a South African writer, author and poet. He was born on 12 February 1949, in Claremont near Durban. He grew up between Lushington near Seymour and Port Elizabeth. Mzi Mahola is his pen name.
He started writing in 1969 at Healdtown High School. In the 1970s he joined the Black Consciousness Movement (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. Due to persecution as well as the loss of his manuscript he lost interest in writing for fourteen years. He started writing again in 1989 and joined the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW). Mahola has been writing, continuously, since then. He submitted his work to various national and international poetry journals, magazines, publications and anthologies. Some of his work has been published jointly, with other writers of the world in twenty-eight anthologies. Extracts of his work have been translated into Danish, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Turkish and Malayalam languages. Mahola writes poetry, has written poetically charged novels, and he has written for the stage and the screen. He has translated a selection of his poems into his mother tongue and published his first Xhosa poetry book titled Ezingaqhelekanga, meaning Strange Things in 2021.
Mahola has conducted many poetry workshops in various venues around the country. He has also adjudicated in many competitions including the works of Port Elizabeth poets who took part in the twinning of the two cities of Gothenburg (Sweden) and Port Elizabeth, South Africa. This intercity twinning project resulted in the exchange visits of young writers between the two cities in 2000.
His first poetry volume Strange Things (Snailpress 1994) was selected to represent South Africa in the World Book Fair in Geneva in 1995. His second poetry book of verse, When Rains Come (Carapace 2000) won the Olive Schreiner Literary award for 2000-01 under the auspices of Wits English Academy. In 2004 he represented South African writers in Glasgow in a symposium between writers of the two countries to celebrate South Africa’s tenth anniversary of democracy. In 2006, Mahola took part in the International Africa Poetry Festival. In 2008 he represented the Eastern Cape in a cultural week in Athens.
In childhood and adolescence and early adulthood he took part in sports, youth politics and activities that shaped the mindset that he would develop later in life. At the age of 12, in 1962 he joined his parents in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape. At the age of 13 he started boxing and lost one fight in more than 80 amateur fights, training with the Fighting Terrors under the late Mr. Nyami Phemba at T.C. White Hall. In 1979 he was crowned national Flyweight Champion at the South African Amateur Boxing Union championships (SAABU) held at Milner Park in Gauteng. He turned professional and became the Eastern Province Bantamweight Champion. He held the title until 1983, when sport was suspended due to national unrests. He was unbeaten in 12 professional fights. He also served as Treasurer of Boast Pirates Football Club. In 1983 he was recruited to operate underground for the ANC.
In 1984 the commander of his underground unit sent him to Lesotho for political training. Upon his return he formed a worker’s union at the Port Elizabeth Museum where he worked. He recruited a white woman for underground operation in his unit. He successfully went in and out of the former Transkei Homeland to establish underground units.
Mahola was in the executive of Uncwadi Writers Association and a member of Bhala Writers organization. He was also a Chairperson of the Friends of the Zwide Library where he conducted a voluntary project of creative writing until the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. As a member of Toastmasters International he won first place in the Eastern Cape Division in the Humorous Speech Competition in 1990. He came second place in the finals at national level held at UNISA later that year.
Mahola’s poem commemorating fallen heroes of the struggle is scrawled on the monument at Emlotheni Memorial Park in New Brighton in Gqeberha. He was one of the recipients of a book honouring pillars of Korsten and New Brighton compiled by the Wall of Honor committee and their respective communities in 2014. His name is written in the Wall of Honor in the New Brighton library for his contribution in community development.
He has presented papers and given speeches at the National Arts Festival and at other venues for school children. He gives poetry readings for university groups and community projects. Now and then he runs poetry workshops around the Province for interested groups of writers and learners.
His first book with poems is titled Strange Things by Snail Press in 1994 and because of its late submission for publishing, Mr. Stephen Daitsh who was a friend of the publisher, Mr. Gus Ferguson, sponsored the book to be published. It received positive reviewing and was amongst those selected to represent South Africa in the Geneva World Book Fair in 1995. There was interest in translating it into German and Danish, but this has not materialized to date.
Sources
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1391262.Mzi_Mahola
https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-5383_Mahola
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mzi_Mahola
