Comrade King

Khulu Radebe already had had a full life before discovering at the age of 50 that he was a king. As a teenager, he teamed with other Alexandra Township youth to carry out the 1976 uprisings just prior to the Soweto rising. Arrested and sent to Robben Island, he was one of the youngest prisoners there. He served six years on the island with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Govan Mbeki, amongst others. After returning to Alex, he helped organise the township during the 1986 Six Days War. He joined the armed struggle, repeatedly dodging death from the enemy and fellow MK soldiers in Angola, and later travelled the globe as a drummer for the ANC’s Amandla Cultural Ensemble. At age 50, and proving a midwife’s prediction correct, Khulu Radebe learned about his royal roots. He was informed that he was ruler of the AmaHlubi people of the Embo Nation, a nation that stretches along the east coast of Africa. In chronicling Radebe’s extraordinary life and times, this landmark biography tells, in a humane, vivid and deeply political way, of the revolutionary path for freedom in South Africa, and the role traditional leaders can play in shaping the nation’s future. Gripping and original, Comrade King makes a powerful contribution to understanding South Africa’s past and present at a critical moment in the nation’s history.

King Bhungane III, born Khulu Radebe, is king of the Embo Nation that stretches along the African continent. He grew up in Alexandra Township and helped organise the June 1976 uprising there against the apartheid regime. His activism landed him a six-year stint on Robben Island, where he became a graduate of what prisoners called “The University of Makana”. Upon returning to Alex in the mid-1980s, he served on the Transvaal High Command while organising protest activities against the government that had imposed a state of emergency. He joined Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC’s military branch, and fought for nine months in Angola before travelling the world to advocate for the anti-apartheid struggle as a drummer in Amandla Cultural Ensemble. Upon returning to South Africa, he helped found the MK Military Veterans Association and Roots, a band made up of ex-political prisoners. At age 50 he learned that he was a king, and he was coronated in November 2015. King Bhungane regularly makes presentations on local, national and international media outlets. Jeff Kelly Lowenstein is an investigative journalist, author and the Padnos/Sarosik Endowed Professor of Civil Discourse at Grand Valley State University. He is the founder and executive of the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ). His work has been published in The New Yorker, USA TODAY, and the Center for Public Integrity, among many publications, and has earned awards from organisations like Investigative Reporters and Editors, the National Press Club, the National Headliner Club, the Society for News Design and the National Association of Black Journalists. He has participated in national and international fellowships about racial justice, the environment, health, business and trauma. A Fulbright Scholar, Specialist and Teacher, he has written or edited six books. In 2016 he was the Taco Kuiper Visiting Fellow at Wits University, and in 2017 he was a Fulbright Specialist there, too.

Book Partnerships

For the Fans