Mphuthumi Ntabeni

Mphuthumi Ntabeni, who lives in Cape Town, trained in the Built Environment. He reads literature, history and philosophy, and contributes literature reviews to various national and international publications. He is also a historical novelist with two books to his name. His major work is a trilogy of historical novels on the lives of amaXhosa during the frontier history of the Eastern Cape, titled The River People. The Broken River Tent (2018), which won the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize in 2019 and was longlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Prize in the same year, is the trilogy’s first book. He is currently writing the second instalment, The Conflicted Men, based on the life and times of Tiyo Zisani Soga, the first Xhosa man to receive a formal Western education (during the 19th century).