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Lewis Nkosi, born December 05, 1936, in Durban, South Africa, is a South African writer and essayist. He has written numerous essays on apartheid and the racist South African State. He worked for a newspaper in Johannesburg, the magazine Ilanga Lase Natal in Durban and Drum Magazine in Johannesburg. Nkosi's works were banned under the Suppression of Communism Act. He was offered a Neiman scholarship from Harvard University to pursue his studies; having received a one one-way exit permit, he left South Africa to live in exile in the United States in 1961. He became a professor of Literature, taught at the University of Wyoming and the University of California-Irvine. He also taught at the Universities of Zambia and Warsaw, Poland. He returned to South Africa in 2001. Nkosi's final years were marked by illness and financial difficulties. After a car accident, from which he never fully recuperated, he passed away in 2010. Nkosi is the author of the plays- The Rhythm of Violence (1964), The Black Psychiatrist (2001)-novels-Mating Birds (1986), Underground People (2002), and Mandela's Ego (2006). He also wrote collections of essays, most notably Home and Exile (1965) and Tasks and Masks (1981). This interview, conducted at the African Literature Association Ghana conference with the assistance of Eke Maureen, Debra Boyd and Famisha Brown, focused on Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country to give students a better understanding of the nature of apartheid, South Africa, the reception and impact of Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country, and South Africans relationship with African Americans.
Chiwengo: Mr. Lewis Nkosi, this interview is really for senior American students in high school and freshmen and sophomores in college who would have read maybe Peter Abrahams but who may not have read any South Africa literature. Consequently, they might not have heard about you. Could you introduce yourself and give us some information on your literary career?
Nkosi: I am now going to be 70 in December. At my age, I have accumulated so much experience, you begin to talk too much, and you don't know where to begin and where to stop. Truthfully, I was brought up by a grandmother because I didn't have a father; my mother died because we were very churchgoing people who were...