Rolfes Robert Reginald Dhlomo (1906–1971) was a South African journalist, novelist and historian born in Siyamu, Edendale in the province of KwaZulu. His

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

''An African Tragedy'', published in 1928, was the first fiction work written by a black South African to appear in book form. Together with his brother

Herbert Herbert may refer to: People * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert, Northern Territor ...

, he worked as a journalist and editor for the journals ''Bantu World'' and ''Ilanga laseNatali''. He wrote his later novels in

isiZulu Zulu ( ), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu language of the Nguni branch spoken in, and indigenous to, Southern Africa. Nguni dialects are regional or social varieties of the Nguni language, distinguished by vocabulary, pronunciatio ...

. He wrote five historical novels about Zulu kings, which have been used extensively as school readers on South African history during

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

, up until now. His ''Selected Short Stories'' was originally published in 1975 by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa. A revised edition was published in South Africa by the

Institute for the Study of English An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

in Africa, Rhodes University, in 1996 .

Sources

*Chapman, Michael. 2003. ''Southern African Literatures'', University of Natal Press. 1906 births 1971 deaths Zulu people South African writers {{SouthAfrica-writer-stub