A multifaceted personality, he attempted multiple genre for his writing, including literary criticism, poetry, drama, novels, short stories, essays, as well as journalism.

Nkosi was born in a traditional Zulu family in a place called Embo in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

His essays criticised apartheid and the racist state, as a result of which the South African government banned his works.

At the same time, he became the first black South African journalist to win a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University to pursue his studies.

[4] When he applied for permission to go to United States, Nkosi was granted a one-way exit permit to leave South Africa, thus being barred from returning.

In 1962, he attended the African Writers Conference at Makerere University, along with the likes of Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Ezekiel Mphahlele.

He was apparently injured in a car crash in 2009 and spent his time on the bed, slowly recuperating from the wounds; however, a recovery never really happened and he drifted towards death.

Despite Nkosi being considered an African literary legend, none of his efforts in literature gave him any economic relief and his friends and fans gathered a charity fund to pay his last medical bills.

[14] Mating Birds is the narration of an educated South African black native called Ndi Sibiya.

After several silent meetings on the beach, Sibiya follows her to her bungalow, finds her lonely and willing, and enters into sexual copulation.

The novel generated a controversy and received critical attention, being awarded the Macmillan Silver Pen Prize in 1986.

In this novel, he moved away from the theme of inter-racial sexual relations and centred the story on the armed struggle in South Africa.

Cornelius Molapo is a language teacher and a member of the National Liberation Movement, an organisation waging armed war against the racist white minority government.

The Central Committee of the Organization advises Cornelius to go to a remote part of the country called Tabanyane and to participate in peasant uprisings.

The latter sends its official Anthony Ferguson, who was born in South Africa and immigrated to England, to investigate the matter.

The Central Committee members, plagued by jealousy of his success as a revolutionary, want to use the issue of white hostages for the release of their leader from prison, engage in talks with the Government and to observe a ceasefire.

But contrary to the expectations of the Central Committee, Cornelius defies them and conducts attacks on the police stations and other locations.

The white hostages reach police and recognise Cornelius's photo and confirm his active presence in the fight.

Nkosi's third novel, Mandela's Ego (2006), is the story of Dumisani Gumede, a teenage boy who has come of age in a Zulu village and runs after every girl and woman to satiate his newly acquired power.

Dumisani's friend Sofa Sonke, driver of the tourist bus, brings every day a newspaper from Durban for him.

[16] He wrote critical essays on many issues, including politics, history, African affairs, American culture, and civilisation.

His critical works include Home and Exile (1965), The Transplanted Heart (1975), and Tasks and Masks: Themes and Styles of African Literature (1981).

Publications in which his writing appeared include Drum, Ilanga lase Natal, Golden City Post, Transition, The Guardian, The Africa Report, Afro-Asian Writings, Sechaba, New Society, The Spectator, New Statesman, The Observer, Negro Digest, Black Orpheus, Fighting Talk, Contact, The African Guardian, Southern African Review of Books, London Review of Books, Genèva-Afrique, The New African, and Harvard Crimson.

On the situation in South Africa during apartheid On black writers and their literature On his exile On the writers and commitment The first comprehensive and critical review on Nkosi appeared in 2006, edited by Professor Lindy Steibel and Professor Liz Gunner, entitled Still Beating the Drum: Critical Perspectives on Lewis Nkosi, published by Wits University Press.

[25] The award was accepted by his widow, Professor Astrid Starck-Adler, at the graduation ceremony at the DUT Midlands Campus.