author
J. W. (Josiah Wright) Matthews
1841–1916
A doctor, politician, and memoirist of colonial South Africa, he wrote from firsthand experience about the diamond fields, public life in Kimberley, and the turbulent changes he witnessed over two decades. His best-known book blends travel writing, political observation, and personal recollection into a vivid period portrait.
1 Audiobook
Incwadi Yami; or, twenty years' personal experience in South Africa
by J. W. (Josiah Wright) Matthews
About the author
Born in 1841 and remembered as J. W. Matthews, he was a medical doctor who spent many years in South Africa. The title page of Incwadi Yami; or, Twenty Years' Personal Experience in South Africa identifies him as a former Vice-President of the Legislative Council of South Africa and a former senior member for Kimberley in the Cape House of Assembly.
His writing is closely tied to the world he knew firsthand. Incwadi Yami, published in 1887, looks back on roughly twenty years in South Africa and is especially associated with Kimberley and the early diamond fields. That gives his work a strong eyewitness quality: part memoir, part travel narrative, and part record of political and social life during a period of rapid change.
Library records also show his name on later literary work, including a translation of Émile Legouis's The Early Life of William Wordsworth, 1770–1798. He died in 1916, leaving behind a body of writing that connects medicine, public service, and close observation of the places where he lived.