Daniël Francois Malherbe or (as he is generally known) D.F. Malherbe (May 28, 1881 in Dal Josafat in Cape Colony

Cape Colony

The Cape Colony, part of modern South Africa, was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town. It was subsequently occupied by the British in 1795 when the Netherlands were occupied by revolutionary France, so that the French revolutionaries could not take...

, now Western Cape Province, South Africa – April 12, 1969 in Bloemfontein, in the then Orange Free State

Orange Free State

The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...

 province, now Free State Province), was an Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

-language novelist, poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, dramatist, and scholar.

Malherbe is most noted for having written what is regarded as the first novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 of artistic value in Afrikaans, Vergeet niet (Do Not Forget). His Biblical novels--Die Hart van Moab (The Heart of Moab, 1933), Saul die worstelheld (Saul the Struggle Hero, 1935), and Die profeet (The Prophet, 1937) draw a parallel between the Afrikaners and the Israelites of the Old Testament

Old Testament

The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...

, yet today they are lightly regarded. Malherbe was also active in the promotion of Afrikaans.

The D.F. Malherbe High School in 14th Avenue, Walmer

Walmer

Walmer is a town in the district of Dover, Kent in England: located on the coast, the parish of Walmer is six miles north-east of Dover. Largely residential, its coastline and castle attract many visitors...

, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 is named after him as well as the D.F. Malherbe Primary School in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa.

External links

• Picture and biography

¹Lindenberg, E., et al. "Inleiding tot die Afrikaanse Letterkunde". Pretoria and Cape Town: Fifth edition, 1980.