Makers and Shapers Profile

Benedict Wallet Vilakazi

Person

6 January 1906 - 26 October 1947

[Source - Benathi Marufu for FHYA, 2022, using the Presidency of the RSA website: Benedict Wallet Vilakazi was a Zulu poet, novelist and philologist, distinguished himself as a linguist and is responsible for creating a genre of poetry which combined traditional Zulu praise-poetry with the blank verse form. He was also the first African senior lecturer at a white university (University of Witwatersrand, 1935). He was born Bambatha ka Mshini in Groutville, Natal, and he was sent to school at the early age of six by his Protestant Christian parents. In 1917, he became the protégé of a Catholic priest, Father Bernard Huss, and was introduced to Roman Catholicism while studying at St. Francis College in the Mariannhill Catholic Mission. Vilakazi was converted and baptized, thus assuming his new names. Dr Vilakazi had a consciousness about the Zulu people which found expression in his first published novel, Nje Ngempela, in 1944. This was followed by a series of other publications both locally and abroad including: Inkondo kaZulu (poetry), Witwatersrand University Press (Johannesburg), 1935; Noma nini (novel), Published in Maridill, Natal, 1935; UDingiswayo Adobe (novel), Sheldon Press (London), 1939; Nje ngempela (novel), Marianhill Mission Press (Marianhill, Natal), 1944; Amal'eZulu (poetry), Witwatersrand University Press, 1945. He also collaborated in putting together the Zulu-English Dictionary (with CM Doke), Witwatersrand University Press, 1948. He pursued further studies which saw him ultimately earning a doctoral degree in literature (PhD) from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1946 and was also a prize winner of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. He also became a lecturer in the African Studies Faculty at Wits University.] His works inspired a generation of African writers like Professors Sibusiso Nyembezi, OT Nxumalo, and Mazisi Kunene and many other writers. Dr BW Vilakazi Primary School in KwaDukuza, which is near his birthplace, is also named after him.