A. H. Ngidi is not as well known in our intellectual and cultural history as he deserves to be because a large portion of his work seems to have been lost. One literary portrait of this fascinating man was pened by H. I. E. Dhlomo in the form of an obituary: "The death of Dr. A. H. Ngidi has removed from amongst us one of our greatest sons. To become a Catholic priest is no easy work. It requires a discipline, character, concentration and devotion beyond the common type. Dr Ngidi went further than this, He proceeded to Rome and proved---in the early days when Africans had very little opportunity to prove---that the African had intellectual powers equal to anyone. He received doctorates in the humanities, the classics, theology and philosophy. . . . The outside world knows him as a scholar, a creative artist, a social worker and a patriot. . . . Most of his time and energies were devoted to his professional work. In spite of this he managed to compose music, write a great body of Zulu poetry, and serve in organisations that worked for the social upliftment of his people. . . . His contributions as a creative artist are outstanding. scholars such as as the late Dr, Vilakazi owe much to his teaching example and inspiration. Father Ngidi's poems are some of the most 'fluid' in the Zulu language. That is, there is no sign of effort about them. They seem to have come from him as naturally as breathing. And the remarkable thing is that most of them were in rhyme which is considered 'foreign' to Bantu poetry or, at least, a stumbling block. The form was invariably classical owing to his great intimacy with classical scholars and literature. He was a master of Greek and Latin" ("Dr. Ngidi", Ilanga lase Natal, August 18, 1951). Indeed, Benedict Wallet Vilakazi had already affirmed the influence of Ngidi on him, in an essay of 1933 delineating his intellectual formation: "During my study i got very much interested in the writings of one 'Amicus Homini Gentis' who as late as 1930 gave us his well selected notes that gave much variation among the writings of men like Rev. Dr. A. H. Ngidi who wrote very scientifically. Fr. Ngidi's scientific writings in 1924 led to a big quarrel with the late Rev. Nyokana and I remember very well how, on Fridays when work was over, we rushed to read our evening mail and to see the two great minds exchanging blows in the literary theatre" ("What Writers Has This National Paper", Ilanga lase Natal, March 17, 1933). It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of A. H. Ngidi to Vilakazi's intellectual formation. In his first writing to appear in Ilanga lase Natal, which was a synthesis of the history of the relationship between Christian civilization (from his view Catholicism) and political philosophy, Vilakazi endorsed, without naming names, the perspective of New African intellectuals such as Josiah Mapumulo and A. H. Ngidi, among others, for whom Christian civilization was an essential and vital component in the making of African modernities: "In absence of deep religious feelings and practices most of the time has been spent in plottings and dissensions with gain to nobody. We do hope that the rise of men who, gifted to lead, masintaining the common touch, and reckless of self, will go forth to battle with the hydra-headed prodigy that threatens 'again and again' this vaunted Christian civilisation to its doom. It is difficult and impossible to follow the vagaries of the carping critics. The fact that nations calling themselves gone far to create the problem and to exasperate the whole situation is due not to the Christianity that they profess, but to their manifest failure to apply their Christianity, or even to begin to understand its bearing upon the problem" ("Etiam Atque Etiam: Old Is New"), September 27, 1929. Despite the enormity of Ngidi's presence in the imagination of Vilakazi, the proof that the fear that Dhlomo had expressed in this obituary, that the great poetic work of Ngidi would be lost if not assembled together for publication had come to pass, is indicated by Ngidi's absence in the list of stellar modern Zulu poets analysed by Mazisi Kunene in his great M. A. thesis: An Analytical Survey Of Zulu Poetry: Both Traditional And Modern (University of Natal, 1959). He analyzes the work of Benedict Vilakazi, E. A. H. Made, Thomas Mthembu, Elliott Mkhize, among others, but Ngidi is conspicuous by his absence. In this brilliant study, Mazisi Kunene articulated the view that Benedict Wallet Vilakazi was the first great modern Zulu poet. Affirming this view a decade later, Kunene wrote: "As the Zulu literary tradition had been devalued, I started writing without models, until I discovered Vilakazi's poetry. When I became dissatisfied with Vilakazi and others, I started my own metrical experiments based on the recurrence of stress in the penultimate syllable" ("Introduction", Zulu Poems, Africana Publishing Corporation, New York, 1970). Another decade later, in poem, Mazisi Kunene had this to say of Vilakazi: "Sleep tried to split us apart/ But the great dream created a new sun./ Through its towering rays two worlds emerged/ And our twin planets opened to each other./ I saw you descending from a dazzling hill,/ Your presence filled the whole world. . . ." ("A Meeting with Vilakazi, the Great Zulu Poet", The Ancestors & the Sacred Mountain: Poems, Heinemann, London, 1982). This is a view no doubt H. I. E. Dhlomo would have found not historical enough in its reticence about A. H. Ngidi, especially its certainty that Vilakazi was the beginning point of modernism in Zulu poetry. In all likelihood, Dhlomo would have preferred a much more nuanced periodization that marked Zulu modernism in poetry with the sign post of A. H. Ngidi. Without wishing to distort the balance between the poetic and philosophical in Ngidi's oeuvre, so far we have perhaps over-emphasised the former at nearly the expense of the latter, in the years he contributed regularly to Ilanga lase Natal, between December 16, 1921 and November 10, 1922, the political and the prose forms predominated. In an important philosophical perspective, Ngidi sought to synthesize Christianity, nationalism and history as an ideology of African modernity: "We study the history of past ages in order to learn for our present times and for the future. As an Aboriginal Native European University Student, and knowing well what I am saying, I do not hesitate to strongly aver, that I love my mother country, South Africa, and my Native fellow-countrymen from the innermost of my heart. Our present position demands 'unity' in all possible directions and respects. Oneness of aim and purpose should be our supreme ideal. The question that is staring us in the face, is how to achieve this oneness of all of us Natives. On what possible basis can we place ourselves? The most natural basis would be religion; and this we have learnt from the most unmistakable and unimpeachable facts of history. . . . really educated Nastive men will calmly hear my quiet considerations and reply objectively to the point at issue and not give passion and wild feelings. I have come to the conviction that unfortunately religion can hardly under the present circumstances form the basis for our national unity. In such an important matter we can but be united on sound principles. Not being able to achieve a stronger principle, we must contend with what we can get. And our next best basis for unity is to be sought in the most sublime of human things. Having, therefore, in vain sought for shelter in religion in our utter distress and dismal helplessness, let us take refuge in the love of our mother-country, and see how we could find a workable bond of unity, that will bind us together and make us feel as one body, soul and mind. History comes again to our rescue with this wholesome lesson. Modern and current history seems to afford us more courage and stimulus in this our last hazardous endeavour. So, my African fellowmen, let us all call out, in one supreme effort: 'Africa est patria mez'" ("Why Do We Study History", Ilanga lase Natal, November 10, 1922). Such views must have been intoxicating on a sixteen year old Benedict Wallet Vilakazi. The true intellectual dimensions of A. H. M. Ngidi are still not visible to us half a century after his death.