Mbulelo Vizikhungo Mzamane (28 July 1948 – 16 February 2014) was a South African author, poet and academic. Nelson Mandela described him as a “visionary leader and one of South Africa’s greatest intellectuals”. He wrote most of his fiction while in exile; it was banned by the Apartheid Censorship board. He was an activist against the Apartheid government and spent many years in exile in Nigeria and the USA. While abroad he spread awareness about the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa.

Mzamane’s story, ‘The Day of the Riots’, is set in Soweto during the 1976 Uprising. It is about how a black man, Sipho, tries to find a way of protecting his family and getting his white colleague, Johannes Venter, out of Soweto unharmed, while the students protested against their school conditions and language policy. It is an insightful and tragic story which shines a light on the lopsided nature of race relations under Apartheid. It captures the changing spirit of the struggle against Apartheid, which spread to the grassroots level and became more militant. It is an example of how writing can be used to serve the purposes of activism