JRR Tolkein, of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fame, was born in South Africa.
(He was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State (now Free State Province), in South Africa. When he was three, Tolkien went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a lengthy family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa and the family stayed in England. And the rest, as they say, is literary history.)