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Makhosazana Xaba

Makhosazana Xaba
Born1957 (age 67–68)
Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Other namesKhosi Xaba
Alma materUniversity of the Witwatersrand
Occupation(s)Poet and short-story writer
AwardsSouth African Literary Awards Short Story Award

Makhosazana Xaba (born 10 July 1957) is a South African poet and short-story writer. She trained as a nurse and has worked a women's health specialist in NGOs, as well as writing on gender and health. She is Associate Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg.[1]

Biography

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Makhosazana (Khosi) Xaba was born in Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, to Glenrose Nomvula Mbatha and Rueben Bejanmin Xaba, the second of five children.[2] She has an MA degree in creative writing from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) and is working on a biography of Noni Jabavu.

Xaba won the Deon Hofmeyr Award for Creative Writing (2005) for her unpublished short story "Running".[2] Her poems have appeared in publications including Timbila, Sister Namibia, Botsotso, South African Writing, Green Dragon and Echoes,[2] and have been collected in These Hands (2005)[3] and Tongues of Their Mothers (2008). A book of her short stories, Running and Other Stories, was published in 2013,[4] and won the 2014 Nadine Gordimer South African Literary Awards Short Story Award.[5]

Xaba is editor of the 2016 anthology Like the Untouchable Wind: An Anthology of Poems, about "the life, experience and visions of African lesbians".[6][7]

She is also a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[8]

In 2022, Xaba co-edited (with Bhekizizwe Peterson and Khwezi Mkhize) Foundational African Writers, a book of essays celebrating the centenaries of Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi and Es'kia Mphahlele, who were all born in 1919. It was described as "a visionary project" by Carli Coetzee of the Journal of African Cultural Studies and professor Mpalive Msiska stated: "This well-crafted collection recovers the seminal position of four of the most important twenty-first-century African writers who have been absent from the canon and recalibrates the distinctive development of African literature."[9]

With Athambile Masola, Xaba introduced the book Noni Jabavu: A Stranger at Home, a collection of Jabavu's Daily Dispatch columns, published in 2023.[10][11]

In 2024, Xaba's Zulu-language translation of Frantz Fanon's final book, The Wretched of the Earth (1961), was published as Izimpabanga Zomhlaba by Inkani Books.[12][13][14]

Works

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  • These Hands: Poems. Timbila Poetry Project, Elim Hospital, Limpopo Province, 2005. Poetry. ISBN 978-0958464086.
  • Tongues of Their Mothers. Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008. Poetry. ISBN 978-1869141448.
  • Running and Other Stories. Cape Town: Modjaji Books, 2013. Fiction. ISBN 978-1920590161.

As editor

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  • Like the Untouchable Wind: An Anthology of Poems. Harare: MaThoko's Books, 2016. Poetry anthology. ISBN 9781928215479.
  • The Alkalinity of Bottled Water. Botsotso Publishing, 2019. Poetry. ISBN 9780994708168
  • (With Bhekizizwe Peterson and Khwezi Mkhize) Foundational African Writers: Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi and E'kia Mphahlele. Foreword by Simon Gikandi. Johannesburg: Wits University Press, 2022. ISBN 978-1776147519.

References

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  1. ^ "Meet the team - Future Professors Programme - FPP Operational Team". Future Professors Programme. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "A Brief Biography of Makhosazana Xaba", Art for Humanity, 31 August 2011.
  3. ^ Molema, Leloba, "Review", Archived 6 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Feminist Africa 5, pp. 153–157, African Gender Institute.
  4. ^ "L'AFRIQUE ECRITE AU FEMININ | Les auteures anglophones". aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  5. ^ Running and Other Stories at African Books Collective.
  6. ^ Xaba, Makhosazana (2016). Like the Untouchable Wind: An Anthology of Poems. MaThoko's Books. ISBN 9781928215479 – via Google Books.
  7. ^ "Like the untouchable wind: An anthology of poems" at GALA.
  8. ^ Magwood, Michele (5 July 2019). "'New Daughters of Africa' Is a Powerful Collection of Writing by Women from the Continent". Wanted.
  9. ^ "Foundational African Writers: Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi and Es'kia Mphahlele". witspress.co.za | Reviews. Wits University Press. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  10. ^ "Noni Jabavu: A Stranger at Home". NB Publishers. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  11. ^ Masola, Athambile (22 March 2023). "Noni Jabavu was a pioneering South African writer - a new book shows how relevant she still is". The Conversation. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
  12. ^ Ghosh, Kuhelika (2 July 2024). "The Zulu Translation of Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth is Now Available!". Brittle Paper. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  13. ^ Xaba, Makhosazana (3 October 2024). "Wretched of the Earth has been translated into South Africa's Zulu language – why Frantz Fanon's revolutionary book still matters". The Conversation. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  14. ^ "Rhodes University launches Frantz Fanon's Izimpabanga Zomhlaba in isiZulu, translated by Dr Makhosazana Xaba". ru.ac.za. Rhodes University. 5 March 2025. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  • Mzamisa, Palesa (2008). "New voices", Wordsetc, Third Quarter, pp. 31–36.


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