Unquestionably, the two lasting achievements of John Langalibalele Dube is to have founded in 1901 a school called Ohlange Institute and launching the Ilanga lase Natal newspaper in 1903. Both of these realizations, inspired by the example of Booker T. Washington, were critical in shifting the Zulu nation from tradition to modernity. The modernity of H. I. E. Dhlomo was given formative shape at Ohlange, in as much as the modernity of Jordan Ngubane which displayed itself with remarkable celerity in Inkundla ya Bantu in the 1940s was inspired by the columns, essays, letters, articles of Josiah Mapumulo, 'Amicus Homini Gentis', 'Rollie Reggie' (R. R. R. Dhlomo), John E. A. Tsekiso, 'Bert' and Martin L. Kumalo which appeared in Dube's newspaper in 1920s and 1930s. The obituaries written by Dhlomo and Ngubane memorializing the first President-General of the ANC were an expression of this gratitude. Dhlomo had this to say: "It is the practice in this country to judge the achievements of Africans in a condescending spirit by making a special tape-measure for the blackman. His work is assessed and valuated not according to absolute standards, but according to the theory that he belongs to a child race----and thus certain allowances and considerations have to be made for him. This attitude, this practice, has done much injury to African endeavour in art, music and other spheres. The life and achievements of Dr. Dube are above this. Adequately to estimate his greatness, therefore, we must, first, consider the absolute, universal standards of greatness. What then are the tests, the signs, the standards, the judges of greatness?" ("Dr. J. L. Dube, Ph. D., M. R. C.: A Tribute", Ilanga lase Natal, February 23, 1946). Judging the life of John Dube to have been a great epic poem, a symphony, Dhlomo tabulates its following achievements: he found his strength, philosophy and uniqueness by transforming superstition, regimentation, uniformity and conservatism so characteristic of traditional societies; through knowledge, ideas and beauty, he changed the habits and thoughts of his contemporaries; he viewed his adversities as challenges and opportunities; he built institutions for the African people which in all probability will survive him; although he was a protege of Washington, as educationist, politician, editor, artist and publicist, Dube surpassed his master; he was successful in unifying the historical vision of the African people; his democratic nature as well as statesmanship were evident that, despite the oppression of the African people by the Europeans, Dube believed that blacks and whites wouls eventually be able to live together under a democratic order. Given these achievements, H. I. E. Dhlomo belived that the universal standards of greatness should be applied to John Dube. Jordan Kush Ngubane was in concurrence with Dhlomo concerning the attainments of Dube: "Dr. Dube was a man of many parts; he was an educationist, a politician, a journalist and an author. In all these fields he distinguished himself, but his greatest monument will remain his work at Ohlange which stands out as the most unanswerable argument against popular fallacies and lies perpertrated against the Black man. . . . In political life, Dr. Dube started as what the old conservatives called a radical and ended a moderate Nationalist. Like most of the leaders of his time, and many others since then, his loyalties were greater to the tribal group to which he belonged than to the whole national group. This bias was neither his fault nor that of the other leaders; all had merely inherited a certain historical situation. . . . As an  author, he broke virtually new ground with his novelette, U-Jeqe: Insila ka Shaka [English translation:            ], which approached the tribal African as a human being, with human likes and dislikes. loving, hating, suffering and conquering just like every other human being; not a miserable creature of circumstance, a mere prisoner to ignorance or to poverty" ("John Langalibalele Dube: A Tribute", Inkundla ya Bantu, February, First Fortnight, 1946). This historical novel or historical romance, like his novella, An African Tragedy (1929), was preoccupied with the pathways of transition from tradition to modernity, a theme that was to receive its highest representative expression in Solomon T. Plaatje's Shakesperean novel Mhudi (1930). John Dube was unquestionably a true pathfinder.