MTSHALI, Oswald Joseph.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Sounds of a Cowhide Drum. First edition, inscribed by the poet on the first blank, "For the love of poetry, O. J. Mtshali". This collection was written while Mtshali worked as a messenger in Johnnesburg. It is a prominent work in the post-Sharpeville "new wave", which made use of a more indirect mode of political expression.Drawing on his observations of the city, it demonstrates "Mtshali's cynical and sarcastic attitude, his oblique and ironic use of vivid, suggestive similes and images, and the profound meaning that lies beneath the apparent simplicity of his poetry" (Shava, p. 72).

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