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 short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) fact ...

''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 Individuals * Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert Name * Herbert (given name) * Herbert (surname) Places Antarctica * Herbert Mountains, Coats Land * Herbert Sound, Graham Land Australia * Herbert, ...

, 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 Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 12 million native speakers, who primarily inhabit the province of KwaZulu-Natal o ...

. 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: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, 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 organisational 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 can ...

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