Dominik, William J. (Durban RWG) [German version] A. African Literature in the Latin Language (16th-18th Cents.) (CT) The earliest and probably best known African poet from this period was Juan Latino (1516-ca. 1594), who was born in West-A. and who came to Spain around 1528. He translated Horace and wrote poetry in Latin. Five published works are extant, for the most part panegyric poems with numerous mythological allusions: The Epigrammatum liber (Granada 1573), which is set mostly in elegic metre following the example of Ovid, celebrates the birth of Prince Fer…

Dominik, William J. (Durban RWG) [German version] A. Literature, Language and Onomastics (CT) Latin was used in numerous historical and legal documents of the 16th and 17th cents., namely in accounts of the early Cape Hottentots and in South African (SA) law. Born in SA, Gijsbert Hemmy (1746-1798), for instance, composed De testimoniis Aethiopum, Chinensium aliorumque paganorum in India Orientali (Leiden 1770) as his doctoral thesis, which consisted of testimonies of the Hottentots and other inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope; he also delivered a Latin oration entitled De Promonto…