Mphuthumi ‘Mpush’ Ntabeni has published two historical novels with a third hitting shelves soon. The Broken River Tent (Black Bird Books 2018), which is based on the life of a contemporary architect, Phila, who gets guided by nkosi Maqoma, the Xhosa chief who led five out of nine major Frontier Wars between amaXhosa and the British Empire.The book won the prestigious University of Johannesburg Debut Prize 2019. His second novel is The Wanderers (Kwela Books, 2021). Ntabeni lives in Cape Town while spending a lot of research time in his home province, the Eastern Cape, where most of the 100 years of Frontier Wars took place. His latest book, Multitudes, is published by Kwela Books (2026) and in it Phila is guided by Nkosazana Ntsusa the warrior princess and first born child of kumkani Rharhabe, the founder of the west of the Kie second nation of amaXhosa.
