A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE OF : BENEDICT WALLET VlLAKAZI
Benedict Wallet Vilakazi was born on the 6th January, 1906, at Groutville near Stanger in the province that is now called K waZulu-Natal. This was the year in which the Bhambatha rebellion took place. Bhambatha Zondi was the leader of the rebels who were rebelling against the head tax that was imposed upon the black people by the government. Benedict Vilakazi was named Bhambatba kaMakhwatha after Bhambatba Zondi.
His parents were Mr. Mshini and Leah Vilakazi They were members of the Zulu tribe and were devout Christians.
B.W. Vilakazi grew up in Groutville and started his primary education in that area. There were seven children, two boys and five girls. He studied at Groutville until he ~eached grade six when he was moved to Marianhill, the Roman Catholic Monastery near Durban, in order to further his schooling. He remained at Marianhill until grade eight, which was the highest grade of his time. After this achievement he trained to become a teacher, obtaining a qualification called the T4 certificate. While he was studying at Marianhill he served as a secretary to Father Bernard Huss who influenced Vilakazi so much that Vilakazi began to think: about studying more to achieve a better and higher education.
He began his teaching career at a Catholic Seminary at Ixopo in KwaZulu-Natal, where he
started to focus on private study. There were very few black teachers at that time that were keen to further their education and improve their qualifications. B.W. Vilakazi was courageous to the extent that he completed his matric. He then enrolled with the University of South Africa and obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934.
Vilakazi developed a very sensitive nature because he taught and lived with African graduates who despised those who did not have a university degree. This made him begin to collect degrees in order to show these people that he could do it. Even after he obtained his first degree some African graduates mocked him saying that it was a "candlelight"
degree~ which was commonly said to those students who obtained their degrees through private studies. But this did not discourage the young Vilakazi, instead it inspired him to silence his mockers by studying more and more with the intention of achieving the highest academic degrees.
He majored in Zulu and he obtained a distinction in the final examination. This earned him a bursary from the University of South Africa to study for a Master of Arts degree in African Studies. B. W. Vilakazi was confronted with a problem. At that period, higher education for Africans was offered at the University College of Fort Hare at the Cape, but it did not offer a senior course in African Studies. B. W. Vilakazi had nowhere to go.
Fortunately the academic authorities already knew him and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg was in the process of publishing in Zulu his first book of poems, Inkondlo kaZulu - Zulu Songs. The University was looking for an African assistant in its Department of Bantu Studies. B. W. Vilakazi appeared to be a suitable person for this position.
He obtained the support of Mr. D. Mck. Malcom who was the Chief Inspector of Native Education in Natal, who encouraged him and recommended him for the appointment. Here are some of Mr. D. Mck. Malcom's (cited in Vilakazi's biography written by C.L.S.
Nyembezi P.6) recommendations in support ofB.W. Vilakazi.
''1 consider Vilakazi a very suitable man for your purpose," he wrote. "He is certainly keen on the study of Zulu and has already done quite a lot of writing one way and another. He has distinct ability."
In 1936, Vilakazi was offered a position in the Department of Bantu Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. This was a breakthrough because he became the first African to lecture at a mriversity for white students in South Africa. He was also fortunate to have a sympathetic colleague in Professor C.M. Doke who was Head of the Department of Bantu Studies. Vilakazi did not stop furthering his own studies and as a result the University of the Witwatersrand awarded him the Master of Arts degree.
B. W. Vilakazi represented a new phase of Zulu achievement. At the beginning of the 19th Century the "Zulu nation" itself hardly existed other than for a few hundred people. It was Shaka who forced the Nguni people later to become Zulus. There was, of course, no writers or literature at the time because the Nguni were illiterate, but there was a rich oral literature.
By the time Vilakazi started writing there was no published book of poetry and no published play by a Zulu. There was only one novel that had been published. Between 1930
and 1940 two prominent Zulu writers were dominating the Zulu literary field. They were B.W. Vilakazi and R.I. Dhlomo.
B.W. Vilakazi had the urge to create and he wrote both poetry and prose including three novels, 'NomaNini," (1935) "Udingiswyo kaJobe" (1939) and "Nje Nempela" (1943), all with an historical background. Many ofhis poems were published in the "native" newspaper called "Ilanga Lasenatali" and in the 'Native" Teachers' Journal It should be mentioned here that he wrote most ofhis poems and novels while he was also teaching and studying privately.
B.W. Vilakazi was a teacher who taught, as I have mentioned earlier, at Marianhill when he was 17 years old. He began to love Marianhill. This became clear on the 50th anniversary of the place because B. W. Vilakazi wrote a long poem about Marianhill titled
"In Celebration of Fifty Years." From St. Francis he taught at Exobho, from Exobho he moved to a school at Pietennaritzburg which was not a Catholic school, and Father Bernard Russ disapproved ofhis presence there. At the beginning of 1933 he taught isiZulu, History and Latin at a school founded by Dr. lL. Dube.
It should be mentioned that by the time he joined the University of the Witwatersrand his poetry was already known because his first book titled Inkondlo kaZulu had already been published by that University.
Vilakazi was preoccupied with verse and as a result he took as the subject ofhis thesis for a higher degree "The Conception and Development of Poetry in Zulu." Re was deeply in
love with the Zulu people and the Zulu way of life with its long and glorious history.
Vilakazi's appointment to the University of the Witwatersrand aroused opposition among a section of the Africans in the Transvaal. Its effect was to make him recoil into his shell so that he appeared to shun the company of Africans ofhis class.
B.W. Vilakazi became a controversial figure among the African people. The educated Afticans respected Vilakazi for his academic achievements and for his contribution to Zulu literature. But they also regarded him as cold, aloof: haughty, a man who was not easily approachable. They thought that he was abrupt in his manner and sometimes he was dehberately rude. On the other hand, those Africans who did not go to school believed he was a pleasant character and easily approachable.
In spite of the attitudes people had about him, he regarded himself as the spokesperson of his people, and in his second book of poems "Amal'ezulu" (Zulu Horizons) he identifies himself with the struggles, fears, aspirations, sacrifices and unconquerable spirit of his people. He was deeply concerned about the Zulu heritage, which he saw as getting lost to the younger generation. In his poems he continually refers to the need for preserving those things which are sacred and precious to the Zulu nation. It is disappointing that while he was investing his love of his people and his faith in their future into his poems, there were those who accused him of being insufficiently conscious of their sufferings and disabilities.
This was because he did not take an active part in politics, believing that he could not serve two masters, involving himself in politics and still performing his academic work satisfactorily.
Having obtained his Master's degree he focused himself on his work as a lecturer, on his literary work and in his studies for a doctoral degree.
B.W. Vilakazi worked with Professor C.M. Doke to compile a Zulu-English dictionary. He was keen to know more about western cuhure to the extent that he enjoyed classical music.
His favourites were Hande~ Bach, Schubert, Mozart and Strauss. He reflected in his verse on the two opposing currents, which such activities aroused among his compatriots. On the one hand, it was felt that the impact of western culture on African culture produced practices and habits among the Africans which were regarded by some as offensive; on the other hand, it was felt by some Africans that all things belonging to their own culture should be despised as inferior.
On the 16th March 1946 Vilakazi's academic studies were rewarded by a Doctorate of Literature by the University of the Witwatersrand. This once again was a breakthrough because he became the first African to achieve this academic distinction.
Deaths in his family made him become preoccupied with the concept of death. One ofhis earliest poems was an elegy on his sister Siziwe, and in later works he paid passionate tribute to his father, his wife and his only brother. Some critics have argued that this preoccupation with death was an indication that he would not live long. Death was one of the major themes in his poetry.
In October 1947 B.W. ViJakazi passed away at the age offorty-one. He left his mother with six of her seven children dead. She had the sad and bitter experience of seeing them
, ....
die just when they reached the age when much was expected of them. At his death B.W.
Vilakazi was regarded as an outstanding figure in Zulu literature. His literary works have influenced many Zulu authors especially in the field of poetry.