Lewis Nkosi was born in Durban, South Africa, in 1936, and died in Johannesburg in 2010. He spent most of his adult life outside South Africa as an exiled writer, a condition he understood well and commented on eloquently. A novelist, playwright and poet, Nkosi was also a critic, teacher and essayist. Witty and urbane, he was a strong critic of apartheid but refused to follow party lines or write to prescription, maintaining an independent position whether the subject was politics, relations between the sexes, or styles of writing.
Orphaned at a young age, Nkosi was brought up by his grandmother and educated to secondary school level. He started his career as a journalist at the age of 20, working first for the Zulu newpaper Ilanga lase Natal, then moving to Johannesburg where he worked
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Citation: Dodgson-Katiyo, Pauline. "Lewis Nkosi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 March 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3347, accessed 27 November 2024.]
