Background
Sol T. Plaatje was born on 9 October 1876 into a family of Tswana origin in Southern Transvaal (South Africa).
journalist linguist politician writer
Sol T. Plaatje was born on 9 October 1876 into a family of Tswana origin in Southern Transvaal (South Africa).
He was educated at a Lutheran mission school.
Because of his uncommon knowledge of several European and African languages, he served as interpreter in several South African courts. When the Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899, he enlisted in the British army. After the war he became a frequent contributor to English newspapers in Cape Town and Kimberley. In 1901 he founded the first Tswana newspaper, the Kimberley Korante oa Bechoana, which he edited until 1908.
When the South African Natives National Congress was founded in 1912 in the hope of defending the rights of the black population, which were threatened by the racialist policy of the Afrikaners, Plaatje was elected its first secretary general. And when the Botha government introduced the Native Land Bill, which aimed at depriving the blacks of much of their landed property, Plaatje traveled through the Orange Free State, gathering evidence about the hardships suffered by the Africans. In 1914 he was a member of the Congress delegation which vainly sought protection from the London government. While the deputation returned to Africa empty-handed, Plaatje stayed in Britain, where he worked as a journalist.
He published Native Life in South Africa (1915), Sechuana Proverbs and Their English Equivalents (1916), and, with the help of Daniel Jones, a Sechuana Phonetic Reader (1916). Presumably also at that time he started writing Mhudi, the first novel composed in English by a black South African. After the war Plaatje attended the Pan-African Congress organized in Paris by W. E. B. Du Bois and subsequently made a lecture tour in Canada and the United States. Back in South Africa in the early 19206, Plaatje withdrew from active politics, as did several other African leaders, driven to despair by their sense of importance; yet he continued to help his people as a journalist, a social worker, and an educator. In 1916 he had contributed an essay to Sir Israel Gollancz's Book of Homage to Shakespeare.
Later, Plaatje translated two of Shakespeare's plays into Tswana: The Comedy of Errors (1930) and Julius Caesar (1937). In 1930 Mhudi, which had been rejected by several publishers, was printed in Lovedale. It is a historical novel of remarkable objectivity and serenity which deals simultaneously with the fratricidal fighting among Bantutribes in the 18306 and with the Great Trek of the Boers fleeing northward to shed British supremacy in the same period. That Plaatje named his book after the heroine of the story suggests that part of his concern was to counteract current European misconceptions about the Africans' alleged contempt for and ill treatment of women. But his basic purpose was to point out, in a skillful, unobtrusive way, the similarity in situation and aspiration between the Barolong tribe, who were trying to free themselves from the yoke of the Amandebele, and the white Boers, who were bent on evading British rule. Plaatje died on June 19, 1932.
Plaatje was a founder member and first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the ANC. The Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, which includes the city of Kimberley, is named after him, as is the Sol Plaatje University in that city, which opened its doors in 2014. In 1982 the African Writers Association instituted a Sol Plaatje Prose Award (alongside the H. I. E. and R. R. R. Dhlomo Drama Award and the S. E. K. Mqhayi Poetry Award). In 1991 The Sol Plaatje Educational Trust and Museum, housed in Plaatje's Kimberley home at 32 Angel Street, was opened, actively furthering his written legacy.
In 1992 the house at 32 Angel Street in Kimberley, where Plaatje spent his last years, was declared a national monument (now a provincial heritage site). It continues as the Sol Plaatje Museum and Library, run by the Sol Plaatje Educational Trust, with donor funding. Circa in 1995 the Sol Plaatje Municipality (Kimberley) in South Africa's Northern Cape Province was named in Plaatje's honour. In 1998 an honorary doctorate was posthumously conferred on Plaatje by the University of the North-West, with several of his descendants present. In 1998 Plaatje's grave in West End Cemetery, Kimberley, was declared a national monument (now a provincial heritage site). It was only the second grave in South African history to be awarded national monument status.
In 2000 the Diamond Fields Advertiser launches the Sol T Plaatje Memorial Award to honour the top Setswana and top English matriculant each year in the Northern Cape. The first recipients are Claire Reddie (English) and Neo Molefi (Setswana). In 2000 the Department of Education building in Pretoria was renamed Sol Plaatje House, on 15 June 2000, in his honor.
In 2000 the African National Congress initiated the Sol Plaatje Award, one of a number of annual achievement awards. The Sol Plaatje Award recognises the best performing ANC branch. In 2002 the Sol Plaatje Media Leadership Institute was established within Rhodes University's Department of Journalism and Media Studies. In 2007 the Sol Plaatje Prize for Translation was instituted by the English Academy of South Africa, awarded bi-annually for translation of prose or poetry into English from any of the other South African official languages.
In 2009 Sol Plaatje was honoured in the Posthumous Literary Award given by the South African Literary Awards. In 2010 a statue of Sol Plaatje, seated and writing at a desk, was unveiled in Kimberley by South African President Jacob Zuma on 9 January 2010, the 98th anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress. In 2013 the Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley, was named after him, which opened in 2014, and was announced by President Jacob Zuma on 25 July 2013.
Schools in Kimberley and Mahikeng are named after Sol Plaatje.
Plaatje was a committed Christian, and organised a fellowship group called the Christian Brotherhood at Kimberley.
Plaatje was married to Elizabeth Lilith M'belle. The couple had five children – Frederick, Halley, Richard, Violet and Olive.
