Unam Wena

Imibongo kaMbungwana itsho ngentsholo eyodwa kwisixa semibongo ekhoyo ngesiXhosa. Ilizwi lakhe liyolula libinze kanobom nokuba selitsholozela phantsi. Le mibongo ithwele ubumbaxa bothando, ubunxadanxada bokuzukisa ikhaya, nenquleqhu eninzi yeenkanuko zomzimba kunye nokusekeka kweminqweno yentliziyo. Akathi gontshi naxa sele ethetha ngemiba yosapho evame ukuba nembali enzima nethe mpa amabibi angasese. Ubhala isiXhosa esiphilileyo nesisaya kuphila. Le mibongo imnombo unabileyo, itsho ngemifanekiso egqamileyo, yenza umqela ovakalayo kwizithethe ezikhoyo zokumela amalungelo okuziphatha nokuzikhunga.

Mthunzikazi A. Mbungwana's poems have a loaded winsomeness that has no parallel in modern isiXhosa poetry. With a remarkably poised voice, Mbungwana makes poems that are as assertive when they are explicit as when they are subtle. Here is no easy comfort about love's lasting ramifications, nor the sometimes tender but ultimately stifling idea of home. Nevertheless, Mbungwana captures the giddy ramblings of a desirous heart, as well as delving into the weighty histories of familial love and scandal, brandishing an isiXhosa that is both deeply literary and gloriously vital. With poems that echo out into each other, and lines insistently rooted in their imagery, Mbungwana finds a way through the eternal and internal contest between the opposing forces of glory and pain, in the process making her own mark in a long and proud poetic tradition.