It may be a mistake to call Herbert Dhlomo the father of black drama in South Africa, since his efforts in the 1930s and 1940s seem to have had no immediate offspring. Nevertheless he was certainly a major pioneer, the first important black South African playwright in modern times. He was also a poet of considerable significance, as well as an essayist, journalist, and short-story writer. Dhlomo's life is interesting not only for his individual achievements in writing and politics but also as representative of the fortunes and feelings of a particular class during a crucial transitional phase in South African history.

Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo was born in 1903 in Siyamu, Edendale (near the city of Pietermaritzburg in the Natal province of South Africa), of Christian parents, his mother having some education. On his father's side his ancestors were related to the royal family of the Dhlomos who...