Heinrich Stephen Samuel (Hein) Willemse was born on 18 September 1957 in Ladysmith, Cape Province, South Africa. He started his schooling at Friedrich Scheffler Primary School in Mossel Bay. Their family relocated to Worcester and he continued his schooling at Esselen Park Primary School and Esselen Park High School. In 1976 he proceeded to the University of the Western Cape (UWC) where he completed the BA (Law) degree in 1978. Thereafter he completed several postgraduate degrees, all at the UWC: BA Hons (cum laude), MA (cum laude), and a doctoral degree in Afrikaans Literature (D.Litt). In 2002 he completed a master's degree in Business Management (MBL) at the University of South Africa.
Since 1980 he taught at various institutions, starting as a teaching assistant and junior lecturer in the Department of Afrikaans at the University of the Western Cape. He was progressively promoted up to the position of associate professor and deputy chair of the Department of Afrikaans. In 2000 he was appointed as Professor and Head of Department Afrikaans at the University of Pretoria. He taught for extended periods as visiting professor at several local and overseas universities: El Colégio de México in Mexico City, Mexico; the Universities of Namibia, Durban-Westville, Stellenbosch, and Pretoria. During the 2004–2005 academic year, he taught as Fulbright Scholar at Grinnell University, Iowa in the USA. In 2017 he was the first holder of the Chair of South Africa Studies at Ghent University, Flanders, Belgium. He served on the executive bodies of several academic and subject-related organisations, among them as President of the International Society for the Oral Literatures of Africa (ISOLA).
Since his student years, Hein Willemse worked part-time as a stringer and journalist for several students, community, and alternative publications, including South, New Era, Die Suid-Afrikaan en Ons leer mekaar. He was also a founder director of Bush Radio, the first community radio station in South Africa. He spent three months at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, USA. Between 1996 and early 2000 he served as the full-time Executive Director of OLM Publications. From 2002-2018 he is the editor-in-chief of Tydskrif vir letterkunde, established in 1936, one of the leading South African literary research journals. He also served as a director or trustee of several civil society organisations and companies.
He mainly researches (South) African literature and the Afrikaans oral tradition. Among his vast number of research publications he published inter alia Aan die ander kant: Swart Afrikaanse Skryfwerk in die Afrikaanse letterkunde (On the other side, Black Afrikaans Writing 2007). In 2002 he received the Insig-Kanna award for “an innovative and enriching contribution to Afrikaans”. In 2001 he received a special award from the Western Cape Department of Culture for his co-edited publication More than Brothers: James Matthews and Peter Clarke at 70. In 2012 he published and co-edited Achmat Davids’ The Afrikaans of the Cape Muslims. His most recent edited publication is Hostel: Autobiographical narratives of the 1975-1980 student generation at the University of the Western Cape (2018).