UKZN appoints the inaugural Mazisi Kunene Research Chair
Professor Nompumelelo Zondi takes up the Chair in the School of Arts.
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The Archive · The Museum · The Legacy
Mazisi kaMdabuli Kunene
1930 – 2006 · Durban · Amahlongwa
Poet Laureate of Africa. First Poet Laureate of democratic South Africa.
Poet, diplomat, scholar and laureate. He wrote an epic body of work in isiZulu, represented the liberation movement abroad, and taught on three continents. The Mazisi Kunene Foundation Trust holds his archive, his house-museum in Glenwood, and the work of carrying his legacy forward.
The Poet
One life, four callings
The Work
Poet
Author of Emperor Shaka the Great, Anthem of the Decades and Zulu Poems: an epic body of work composed in isiZulu.
The Struggle
Diplomat
Founding member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain and ANC Chief Representative in London from 1962.
The Academy
Scholar
SOAS, University of London, then nineteen years at UCLA, with posts at Stanford, Iowa, Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal.
The Office
Laureate
Poet Laureate of Africa, UNESCO, 1993. First Poet Laureate of democratic South Africa, 2005.
10 000+Original manuscript items held in the family archive
4Continents of institutional standing: Africa, Europe, the Americas, East Asia
2Laureateships, one continental and one national
2Durban roads that carry his name
Partner With Us
Build on a legacy with global reach
The Foundation works with corporate partners, universities, publishers and cultural institutions, in education, research, heritage, publishing and culture.
Education
Schools and science
The Professor Kunene Science Lab at Amahlongwa serves five partner schools.
Bidvest-funded lab
Research
The academy
A standing partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Mazisi Kunene Research Chair, UKZN, 2026
Publishing
Rights and editions
A body of work published in English, isiZulu and Japanese.
Heinemann, London · Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo
The wall of honours at the house-museum, Glenwood.
Archive & Museum
The house in Glenwood
Professor Kunene's home in Durban is now a museum, holding his honours, his library and a family archive of more than ten thousand original manuscript items.
Visits by appointment
8 Delville Avenue, Glenwood, Durban
News
From the Foundation
The Professor Kunene Science Lab at Amahlongwa
Funded by the Bidvest Group, serving five partner schools.
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