Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali

South African poet Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali was born in Natal. He studied at the University of Iowa and Columbia University. He is the author of the poetry collections Fireflames (1980), which was banned by the South African government for its antiapartheid sentiment, and Sounds of a Cowhide Drum (1971), winner of the Olive Schreiner Prize. 

Mtshali also edited Give Us a Break: Diaries of a Group of Soweto Children (1988).

He lives in Soweto.