Mzala Nxumalo, Leftist Thought and Contemporary South Africa

A powerhouse of South African and international scholars and activists reflect on the writings and theories of the late Jabulani Nobleman “Mzala” Nxumalo in this exciting new volume of essays. This book is both a tribute to and a deliberation on his intellectual work. Nxumalo’s death in 1991 robbed the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party of one of their most prolific writers, a revolutionary intellectual and thinker. His death was a huge loss particularly at a time when his thinking skills were much needed during both the negotiations period and the time of rebuilding the ANC in the country. This deeply thought book considers the value of Mzala’s work in the context of contemporary South Africa’s left politics. The contributors are Robert J. Balfour, Yul Derek Davids, Bernard Dubbeld, Pat Horn, Gregory Houston, Gunnett Kaaf, RasiganMaharajh, Alex Mohubetswane, Sam Matiase, Percy Ngonyama, Bonginkosi Emmanuel “Blade” Nzimande, John Pampallis, Mandla J. Radebe, Jenny Schreiner, Vladimir Shubin, Noel Solani, Sigfried Tivana and Elaine Unterhalteriase.

Robert J Balfour is a National Research Foundation-rated academic. He has published frequently on language learning and literacy, rural education and postcolonial literature, andis featured widely in the popular press for perspectives on multilingualism and education. In 2011 he was appointed as Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Education Sciences on the Potchefstroom Campus of North West University, and was appointed as Deputy Vice Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) in mid-2017. Besides being an applied linguist, postcolonial literary critic and educationist, Balfour is an exhibited painter, exhibiting for the first time in a group exhibition in Cambridge in 2003, and then at ArtSpace Gallery in Durban in 2007, 2015 and 2023 respectively. Occasionally, Balfour has also published poetry and short fiction in literary journals in the USA, Australia and South Africa. He believes cr eative and scholarly work to be complementary.