Herbert Dhlomo

Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo (1903, Siyamu/Pietermaritzburg (Natal) – 20 October 1956, Durban) is one of the major founding figures of South African literature and perhaps the first prolific African creative writer in English. His elder brother was the famous artist R. R. R. Dhlomo, and the great Zulu composer, R. T. Caluza, is a near relative. His father, Ezra, was a friend of Bambatha, who led the Bambatha rebellion. Dhlomo himself held many jobs during his short life, but always regarded his literary production as his major achievement:

"My creative life is the greatest thing I can give to my people, to Africa. I am determined to die writing and writing and writing. And no one … can stop, fight or destroy that. It is the soul, the heart and, the spirit. It will endure and speak truth even if I perish…I have chosen the path to serve my people by means of literature, and nothing will deflect me from this course."

Born in Natal Province, South Africa, Dhlomo was educated in local schools, before training as a teacher at Adams College. He subsequently taught for some years in Johannesburg. He was very active in social affairs during the 1920s, which resulted in several articles published by him in newspapers such as Ilanga Lase Natal in Durban and Bantu World.

At the time he also became active for a body called the Bantu Dramatic Society and the ANC. In 1935 he finally left the teaching profession to join the staff of Bantu World. During this time of the 1920s and 1930s the black population in the area strove to emancipate themselves with the help of influential white liberals against the conservative white majority who held all political power. Herbert Dhlomo soon became one of the major figures of the new black elite. The catchphrase of the time was "progressive" and The African Yearly Register of the time described Dhlomo as "a young man of fine personality, very progressive in his ideas", which at this time meant that he was open towards the achievements of Western modernity.

This Progressivism was part of Dhlomo's earlier writing and centred on Western-style education, "civilisation", moderation, anti-tribalism etc. Examples of this kind in Dhlomo's writing are The Girl who killed to Save and Ntsikana, which are in the line of Progressivist ideas and justify white policy. Native Africans were supposed to be the junior partners of the whites in politics and literature, a relationship that was supposed to develop eventually into racial equality. The literature they produced was meant for a mission press, and its aim was to keep the political situation quiet rather than to ameliorate it for the blacks. The language of these early writings also reveals the heavy influence of British Victorian and Romantic anthology pieces, which manifests itself in a pompous style, elitism and overawed-ness in the face of British models. The black writer of the time was simply supposed to show his or her cleverness by emulating the great white tradition.

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