Early Xhosa author William Gqoba dies

Author, editor, teacher, catechist, interpreter and wagon-maker William Wellington Gqoba (Mbaba, Goba) died in Lovedale, Eastern Cape. He was born in Gaga, near Alice, and was one of the earliest authors in Xhosa literature. Charles Brownlee rated him one of the best, if not the very best, Xhosa translator from English into his mother tongue. During his lifetime his Xhosa writings appeared only in the newspaper Isigidimi samaXhosa; after his death, W.B. Rubusana included nine pieces in his anthology Zemuk' inkomo magwalandini (1906), and W.G. Bennie later used two of these in his anthology Imibengo (1935). Gqoba was survived by a son and two daughters, one of whom was named Maria. Source: Sonderling, N.E. (ed.) New Dictionary of South African Biography, v.2 , Pretoria: Vista.