Native Life in South Africa

Solomon T. Plaatje (1876-1932) was a South African linguist, politician, writer, and translator. Born in the Orange Free State, he was raised in a family of eight sons by Johannes and Martha of the Tswana nation. At four, he moved with his parents to Pniel, Cape Colony, where he received an education from local missionaries. Plaatje became at teacher at age 15 before leaving school two years later to work at the Kimberley Post Office. At 21, he earned the right to vote as a native South African fluent in English and Dutch, but would lose access to the ballot with the 1910 Union of South Africa. Plaatje was a prominent activist for African liberation and suffrage, a founding member of the South African Native National Congress, and a gifted translator who introduced the works of William Shakespeare to a Tswana speaking audience. During a trip to the United States, he met Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. Du Bois, and in England acted in theatrical impresario George Lattimore’s 1923 Cradle of the World show. Plaatje wrote several works of literature, including The Boer War Diary (1973), Native Life in South Africa (1916), and Mhudi (1930). The latter was the first novel written by a Black South African in English.