DANIEL CANODOISE THEMBA, more commonly known as Can Themba, was a teacher, writer, and activist born in Marabastad, South Africa in 1924.
He attended the University of Fort Hare where he earned his teaching diploma and a degree in English. His writing career began in Sophiatown after he won a short-story competition with the magazine Drum. Themba later joined the magazine as an investigative journalist, exposing the realities of apartheid alongside other writers such as Bloke Modisane, Ezekiel Mphahlele and Modikwe Dikobe – known together as the pioneering 'Drum Generation'. The South African government retaliated by placing a ban on his writing in 1966, prompting Themba to move to the Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, where he lived out the rest of his life in exile. Themba died in 1967.