A literary colossus like Benedict W. Vilakazi can best be examined and evaluated through the several portraits that another literary giant, H. I. E. Dhlomo, sketched of him. Their relantionship is one of the most fascinating in South African intellectual and cultural history. Both were profoundly touched by the two great institutions that John Dube gave as a gift of modernity to the African people: The Ohlange Institute and the Ilanga lase Natal newspaper. Not only was Vilakazi's intellectual formation shaped by this newspaper, he was later a teacher at the Dube's school, before moving on to the University of Witwatersrand, where he completed his doctoral studies and took up a lectureship. Dhlomo was the most brilliant intellectual to appear on the pages of Ilanga lase Natal. One outstanding characteristic of Vilakazi was his intellectual integrity, evident in his tracing of his own intellectual lineages and his entanglement with Dhlomo about the importance of literary works in the African languages in the making of South African modernity. He named the following intellectuals and writers who had been contibuting to Ilanga lase Natal since its inception in 1903, as having been seminal in his intellectual formation: A. H. Ngidi, 'Amicus Homini Gentis', 'Bert', R. R. R. Dhlomo, Holoza, Martin L. Kumalo. Defining his philosophy of writing and acknowledging the particular individual from whom he had derived its principles, Vilakazi recalled: "It is very interesting to study the trend of thought espoused by Native papers and sometimes to discoverhow editors hold together the minds of the writers of their papers. . . . Now I can say that Ilanga is dominated by the opinions of Mr. Josiah Mapumolo. Several times I have made mention of the name of this gentleman in this and other journals. We, who are writers for the Ilanga should copy this from this gentleman: To read and pore on books, and absorb knowledge from newspapers both old and new and never to say that we are grown old and tired of reading and reproducing. Many a time have I envied his quotations and wished I would turn a burglar to search his library of old books of history of many mission stations, both Protestant and Catholic. There is that lucidity in his writing which is unsallied with bias and uncramped by party opinions" ("What Writers Has This National Paper", Ilanga lase Natal, March 17, 1933). In this same year of 1933, with a series of articles in Ilanga lase Natal, Vilakazi made his dramatic entrance into the national intellectual stage: "African Music: Where Is It?", February 10; "Educational Literature And Native In South Africa", May 26; "'Umbuso ka Shaka': A Book Review", October 6; "Love Of Our Land: Even Christ Was Patriotic", November 3 and 10. Although in the year of 1938 he had already began writing poetry, the later metamophoses of which was to make him one of the major South African poets, it was his extraordinary essay extracted from his M. A. thesis of this same year that was published in Bantu Studies ("The Conception And Development Of Poetry In Zulu", vol. XII no. 2, June 1938) which made him renowned throughout South Africa as a remarkable intellectual force within the New African Movement. The first intellectual encounter in written form between them was in the form two appreciations by Dhlomo expressing his admiration for Vilakazi's literary productivity. Summarizing this essay as a milestone in African literary studies, Dhlomo made the following observations: "In the first part of the work Mr. Vilakazi proves the existence of a great body of poetry in Zulu, dissects and analyses the form and technique of this poetry, interpretes its content and reveals its beauty, fire and rich imagery. In part two he gives four divisions of Zulu poetry, suggests a term that covers the four parts, and examines the claims and achievements of the African tribal (or primitive) poet. Modern influences are discussed in part III. . . . Mr. Vilakazi himself has to be congratulated on being the first African---am I right---to contribute a highly scientific and learned paper to a highly scientific and learned journal" ("'The Conception And Development Of Poetry In Zulu': An Appreciation", Ilanga lase Natal, August 20, 1938). In the second appreciation two years later, Dhlomo considered Vilakazi's book of poems, Inkondlo za Zulu, and his novel, U-Dingiswayo ka-Jobe ("U-Dingiswayo ka-Jobe: An Appreciation"). Impressed by the novel, Dhlomo considered Vilakazi to be one of the most significant figures in African literature on the continent. Taking the opportunity to criticize the moralising tendencies which had been prevalent in African novels in the African languages (he could have easily named his brother's An African Tragedy or Thomas Mofolo's The Traveller Of The Light or John Dube's U-Jeqe: Insila ka Shaka or Enoch S. Guma's Nomalizo), Dhlomo praised Vilakazi for having overcome this literary habit.  He found pleasing the deceptive simplicity of the novel, as well as its sincerity. What Dhlomo profoundly pleasing Dhlomo about the novel, since it confirmed one of his obsessions, is that Zulu women are portrayed as moral, pure and virtuous. Other than this novel of 1939, Vilakazi wrote two other novels: Noma Nini (1935) and Nje-Nempela. Anton M. Lembede wrote a caustic review of the latter ("Book Review of Nje-Nempela by B. Wallet Vilakazi", Quarterly Review, September 1946). Dhlomo too, in certain instances, expressed reservations about some Benedict Vilakazi's efforts, especially his later poetry and some aspects of his theory of African literature. All in all, Dhlomo was laudatory about the historical significance of Vilakazi: as can be seen in three intellectual sketches which appeared in Ilanga lase Natal, and one in Drum magazine in the early 1950s. The death of the great scholar and poet in 1947 shattered Dhlomo. It would seen that for Dhlomo the greatest achievement of Vilakazi is exemplified in two texts: the dissertation, The Oral And written Literature In Nguni (University of Witwatersrand, 1946), and the dictionary, Zulu-English Dictionary (compiled together with C. M. Doke, Witwatersrand University Press, 1948). Within a week of Vilakazi's death, Dhlomo wrote a major threnody, in which he said among other things: "Now art thou gone great Vilakazi, sage/ And poet, greatest Singer of your age" ("Ichabod: Benedict wallet Bambatha Vilakazi", Ilanga lase Natal, November 8, 1947). This historical judgment, written two years after the death of the great Xhosa poet S. E. K. Mqhayi, has not as yet been challenged by posterity.