Benedict Wallet Vilakazi

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For the association football player, see Benedict Vilakazi (soccer).

Benedict Wallet Vilakazi
Bambatha kaMshin
University of Witwatersrand
Thesis Oral and written literature in Nguni.[1]
Doctoral advisorCM Doke

Benedict Wallet Vilakazi (6 January 1906 – 26 October 1947) was a

PhD.[2]

Vilakazi Street along which the poet lived in the formerly segregated township of Soweto, is named after Benedict Vilakazi. Vilakazi Street is now very famous as the street where both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu also once lived.

Early life and education

Benedict Vilakazi was born Bambatha kaMshini in 1906 at the Groutville Mission Station near

Natal (now South Africa), the fifth child of Roman Catholic converts Mshini ka Makhwatha and Leah Hlongwane. His mother, Mrs Leah Hlongwane Vilakazi, was the daughter of Bangile, who was the sister of Queen Ngqambuza, wife to King Cetshwayo, and also the sister of the Right Reverend J Mdelwa Hlongwane ka Mnyaziwezulu, the son of Chief Matiwane
.

Vilakazi split his childhood between herding the family's

Trappist monastery.[3] Here he was baptized with the name "Benedict Wallet," although at his mother's insistence he kept the surname of Vilakazi. He obtained a teaching certificate in 1923 and taught at Mariannhill and later at a seminary in Ixopo
.

Writing, teaching, research

In 1933, Vilakazi released his first novel Nje nempela ("Really and Truly"), one of the first works of Zulu fiction to treat modern subject matter. He followed it in 1935 with the novel Noma nini as well as a poetry collection Inkondlo kaZulu, the first publication of European-influenced Zulu poetry.

His poetry, heavily influenced by the verse of the

praise poetry
.

Vilakazi Street is where Mandela House (and Tutu House) is in Soweto

Earning a

University of Witwatersrand in 1936[4] under linguist C. M. Doke, with whom he created a Zulu-English dictionary. Vilakazi's teaching position made him the first black South African to teach white South Africans
at the university level.

Vilakazi's later novels continued to explore daily life in traditional Zulu culture, such as UDingiswayo kaJobe (1939) and Nje nempela (1944), which is the story of a polygamous Zulu family.

His poetry became increasingly political in the course of his life, dramatizing the exploitation and discrimination not only against the

black South Africans
as well.

Vilakazi is also noted for his scholarly work on oral tradition and the Zulu and Xhosa languages, which on 16 March 1946, earned him the first PhD to be awarded to a black South African.

A year after receiving his doctorate, Benedict Wallet Vilakazi died in Johannesburg of meningitis. Both his novels and poetry were well received in his own lifetime and remain so today.

Legacy

Tutu's house in Vilakazi Street

Vilakazi Street in Soweto is where two Nobel Laureates, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, once lived and it was named in honour of Vilakazi, who was also a former resident.[5] Dr B.W. Vilakazi Secondary School in Zola 3, Soweto was named after the late Dr Vilakazi in order to commemorate his legacy.[6]

On 28 April 2016, the Order of Ikhamanga - Gold (OIG) was conferred on Dr Benedict Wallet Vilakazi posthumously‚ for "his exceptional contribution to the field of literature in indigenous languages and the preservation of isiZulu culture".[7]

A

literary translation by R.M. Mfeka and Peggy Rutherfoord of Benedict Vilakazi's poem Umamina was published in the anthology African Voices: An Anthology of Native African Writing.[8]

In his 1974 book about the history of the

Shaka Zulu, "must remain an enigma." Roberts, however, praised Benedict Vilakazi, the last lines of whose Zulu language
poem UShaka KaSenzangakhona ("Shaka, Son of Senzangakhona"), contain, "perhaps the most fitting epitaph to Shaka":

"The nations, Shaka, have condemned you,
Yet still today, they speak of you,
Still today their books discuss you,
But we defy them to explain you."[9]

Works

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

References

  1. OCLC 49016978
    .
  2. ^ Anonymous (17 February 2011). "Dr. Benedict Wallet Vilakazi". South African History Online. Archived from the original on 20 December 2009. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  3. ^ "St. Francis College - History". Archived from the original on 9 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  4. ^ "Dr. Benedict Wallet Vilakazi". Archived from the original on 7 June 2018. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  5. ^ Vilakazi Street Sign, photo on Flickr, accessed July 2013
  6. user-generated source
    ]
  7. ^ "President Jacob Zuma bestows 2016 National Orders Awards, 28 Apr". South African Government. 20 April 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
  8. ^ Edited by Peggy Rutherford , African Voices: An Anthology of Native African Writing, The Vanguard Press, Inc. Pages 46-48.
  9. ^ Brian Roberts (1974), The Zulu Kings, Barnes & Noble. Page 163.

External links

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