Niq Mhlongo

(Murhandziwa Nicholas Mhlongo) was born in 1973 in Midway-Chiawelo Soweto, South Africa. He studied African Literature and Political science at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. In 1996 he began studying Law at the same university, and continued this study at the University of Cape Town in 1998. His first novel Dog Eat Dog was published in 2000. It is an evocative account of his experience as a young South African of the post-apartheid generation. As a writer he considers it to be his mission to reflect and discuss the changes within his world, brought about by the abolishment of apartheid and ten years of democracy. He takes it upon himself to deal with subjects such as AIDS, unemployment, poverty, xenophobia and homosexuality. According to Mhlongo these are matters which the South African youth of today can identify with.