The Xhosa-speaking peoples who settled along the south-eastern seaboard of South Africa promoted traditions of praise poetry (izibongo), poetry produced orally about people, clans, ancestors, and animals. Throughout the nineteenth century, authors who used the Xhosa language gradually developed the craft of composing poetry for publication in newspapers, and expanded this process in the twentieth century. The dominant poet in the community is the imbongi, who continues to produce poetry praising or criticising figures of authority on occasions of local and national significance. "Xhosa Poets and Poetry" contains fourteen essays originally published between 1974 and 1996. Based on fieldwork conducted between 1969 and 1985, and on extensive archival research, the first six essays examine the social function of poetry in the community, the element of improvisation in the production of poetry-especially in the poetry of the imbongi-and the structural principles of his poetry. Individual poets are then presented, among them D.L.P. Yali-Manisi, Melikaya Mbutuma, Peter Mtuze, and Nontsizi Mgqwetho, the first woman to produce a substantial body of poetry. The concluding four essays are thematic, treating issues introduced by the medium of print: the role of newspapers in fostering literature; censorship and control of the press; the damaging effects of changes in Xhosa spelling; and, finally, the suspicion in which Xhosa poets held books and writing. This second edition updates the bibliographical references and offers a keen engagement with its subject, with copious examples of their poetry in Xhosa and in the English translation. It offers a cultural context for the volumes in this series. (Series: Publications of the Opland Collection of Xhosa Literature, Vol. 5) [Subject: African Studies, Poetry]