Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali burst onto the South African literary scene with the publication of Sounds of a Cowhide Drum: Poems in 1971. The book went into six impressions, sold more than thirteen thousand copies, and was published in New York and London the following year. Until Mtshali and other black poets began publishing poetry in literary magazines such as The Classic in the late 1960s, prose--in particular, the short story and the autobiography--was the medium favored by most black South African writers. The success of Mtshali's collection of poetry, as well as the example of James Matthews's Cry Rage! (1972), helped pave the way for a more militant generation of black poets--including Sipho Sepamla, Mongane Wally Serote, and Mafika Gwala--many of whom were strongly influenced by the Black Consciousness Movement. This poetry, often referred to as "new black poetry," "township poetry," or "Soweto poetry," shook up the English literary establishment...