H. I. E. DHLOMO

We live under conditions in many ways similar to those that produced great Greek dramatic literature and the immortal Elizabethan drama. What, then are some of the conditions under which great literature thrives? It is a time of transition, of migration of population, of expansion, of the rise of new horizons and new modes of thought and life. It is a time when an old indigenous culture clashes with a newer civilization, when tradition faces powerful exotic influences. It is a time when men suddenly become conscious of the wealth of their threatened old culture, the glories of their forefathers, the richness of their tradition, the beauty of their art and song. It is a time when lamentations and groans, thrills and rejoicings, find expression in writing. It is a timewhen men discover in their history, great heroes whose activities are near enoughto be of interest and meaning, but remote enough to form subjects of great, dispassionately passionate creative literature. It is a time when men realise they canpreserve and glorify the past not by reverting back to it, but by immortalising it in art. It is a time when embrace the old and seize upon the new; when they combine the native and alien, the traditional and the foreign, into something new and beautiful. It is atime when men become more of themselves by becoming transformed, when theyretreat to advance, when they probe into their own life by looking outward at the wider world, when they sound the mute depths by gazing at the rising stars.

- H. I. E. Dhlomo, "Tribal Dramatic Forms", Transvaal Native Education Quarterly, March 1939.