Benedict Wallet Vilakazi

Benedict Wallet Vilakazi (* January 6, 1906 near Stanger, Natal, Republic of South Africa today, † October 26, 1947, Johannesburg, South Africa; actually Bambatha KaMshini ) was a Zulu -writing poet, writer and linguist. In 1946, he became the first black South African who was awarded his doctorate.

Life

Benedict Vilakazi came in 1906 as Bambatha KaMshini at the mission Groutville near Stanger, Natal to the world. He was the fifth child of Christian converts Mshini ka Makhwatha and Leah Hlengwane ka Mnyazi. As a child Vilakazi tending the cows and his family attended the local mission school. At the age of ten years he came to the St. Francis College in Mariannhill, a Roman Catholic monastery. Here he was baptized with the name " Benedict Wallet", while his mother insisted that he retained the surname Vilakazi. He earned a degree in 1923 as a teacher and taught in Mariannhill and later at a seminar in Ixopo.

1933 Vilakazi published his first novel Nje nempela ( " Really and Truly "). This is one of the first literary works in Zulu, which covers a topic of modern life. Followed in 1935, the novel Noma nini and the poetry collection Inkondlo kaZulu, the first publication of west -influenced Zulu poetry.

After he had in 1934 acquired a bachelor's degree at the University of South Africa, Vilakazi 1936 began working at the Department of Bantu Studies of the University of the Witwatersrand under Clement M. Doke. With him, he created a dictionary Zulu -English. His teaching made ​​him the first black South African to white South Africans taught at the university level.

Vilakazis later novels revolved continue for the life of the Zulu, about UDingiswayo kaJobe (1939) and Nje nempela (1944 ), the story of a traditional polygamous household. His poetry, which was heavily influenced by European romanticism, combined rhythm and rhyme forms, which had been unknown until then in Zulu, with elements of traditional poetry izibongo price. The poems were increasingly politically and denounced the exploitation not only of the Zulu, but the black Africans in general to. His novels and poems were well known during his lifetime as well as today.

With a scientific paper on oral handing down in Zulu and Xhosa Vilakazi was born on March 16, 1946 as the first black South African who holds a doctoral degree. He died the following year in Johannesburg meningitis.

Works

• Inkondlo kaZulu. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1935 ( poetry )
• Noma nini. Yacindezelwa Emshinini Wasemhlathuzane, Mariannhill / Natal 1935 (novel)
• UDingiswayo kaJobe. Sheldon Press, London, 1939. (Novel)
• Nje nempela. Mariannhill Mission Press, Mariannhill / Natal 1944 (novel)
• Amal'eZulu. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1945 ( poetry )
• Zulu - English Dictionary ( with Clement M. Doke ). Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1948 ( Dictionary )

• Author
• Literature ( South Africa)
• Literature ( 20th century)
• Linguist
• Zulu
• South Africans
• Born in 1906
• Died in 1947
• Man