Ruben Xulu, born deaf on 10 May 1952 and attended school in Mgangatho from 1955 to 1961. He began carving with Bernard Gcwensa at Hiabisa mission station and embarked on a life-long career of producing religious sculptures for missions in Natal. Unlike Gcwensa, who because of ill-health worked solely in wood, Xulu produced sculpture in both stone and wood. Xulu remained at Hlabisa until 1970.
His major works produced for the mission church Malusi Omuhle at Hlabisa include a stone baptistry, crucifix and stone bas reliefs set into a curved wall which he integrated into a cohesive unit with line drawings. In 1970 Xulu accompanied the Canadian priest Edwin Kinch when he moved to St Lucia, in Natal. He continued to carve there until 1973 when he went to Stanger. In 1975 he moved to Seven Oaks, a mission station outside Dalton near Greytown where he worked under Father Anton Maier. During this time he also worked periodically at Mariannhill under Sister Johanna Sen. He died on 15 December 1985 in Mariannhill, Natal.
Exhibitions:
1965: DAM (Bantu Inter Faith Art Exhibition).
1978: Mariannhill Art Centre, Natal (solo). Information supplied by Dina Cormick
Sack, S. (1988). The Neglected Tradition, Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery. | See Cormick, D (1993), Bernard Gcwensa and Ruben Xulu Christian Artists of Natal, (Pretoria)