In the Preface to his pathbreaking dissertation of 1946 for the University of Witwatersrand, The Oral and Written Literature in Nguni, Benedict Wallet Vilakazi complemented James James Ranisi Jolobe with these words: "I am greatly indebted to the late S. E. K. Mqhayi for assistance pertaining to Xhosa mythic lore. Rev. J. J. R. Jolobe proved a real friend and companion in guiding my interpretation of certain things that were puzzling in the written literature of the Xhosa" (p.viii). This coupling of Jolobe's name with that of the greatest Xhosa poet in the twentieth, who was his senior by 27 years, has tended to overshadow the extraordinary achievements of Jolobe. Mqhayi deeply admired his protege. The contrast between them is fascinating: whereas S. E. K. Mqhayi has been called Imbongi YeSizwe (National Poet or Poet Laureate), Jolobe was known as Imbongi Yemnqamlezo ( Poet of the Cross). This is so because Jolobe's poetry is overladen within Christian symbology. In his classic book of African criticism, Tasks and Masks: Themes and Styles of African Literature (1981), Lewis Nkosi though placing Jolobe among the pioneers of African modern poetry in South Africa, he was critical of this unbridled religiosity: "For purposes of convenience alone I have divided my treatment of this subject into two main sections; the Pioneers and the Moderns. . . . By the 1920s in South Africa the Scottish missionaries had firmly laid the groundwork for the literary activity which would culminate in that first flowering of African literature the most notable representatives of which were Mqhayi, Jolobe, Bereng, Vilakazi and H. I. E. Dhlomo. . . . As a 'mission school' product Vilakazi was less fettered by his background than many of his contemporaries. This becomes immediately apparent when we examine the work of a poet like J. J. R. Jolobe. A respected Xhosa poet and minister of the Presbyterian church, he too, translated some of his verse into English; but whereas the 'mission school' influence is evident throughout Jolobe's work, especially in his deep commitment to Christian values in opposition to the 'pagan' religion of his people, or his adherence to the notion of some more enlightened European culture compared to whose dazzling light he regrettably saw around him only 'the gloomy shadows of our land/Of darkness and of ignorance', Vilakazi, . . . . " (p.107, 112, 113). If Mqhayi's principal task was to shift Xhosa poetry from its from tradition to modernity, Jolobe perceived his as shifting it from paganism to Christianity. Besides his voluminous poetry, Jolobe was also extensively engaged with the essay form. In fact, his collection of essays in Xhosa, Amavo (Personal Impressions, 1940), was the first assembled and published by Xhosa New African intellectual. This anthology stands in fascinating to the Zulu essays of Emmanuel H. A. Made: Ubuwula bexoxo (The Foolishness of the Frog, 1945). Jolobe was also a novelist and a playwright. Given the numerous generic forms in which he excelled, it is not surprising that C. L. S. Nyembezi, the eminent Zulu novelist, held J. J. R. Jolobe in high regard: "In his writings Jolobe has shown himself to be a brave-man, a man who is not afraid to stick his neck out for fear of criticism, a man who is not afraid of experimenting. He first experimented with rhyme in his poetry and when he thought that the result was not altogether satisfactory he did not hesitate to discard it." Jolobe undoubtedly was a writer in search of authenticity through experimentation.