Lover of His People

Seetsele Modiri Molema, Karen Haire, D.S. Matjila

Description

Seetsele Modiri Molema’s Sol T. Plaatje: Morata Wabo is the first biography of Solomon Plaatje written in his mother-tongue, Setswana, and the only book-length biography written by someone who actually knew him. The manuscript had long been housed in the Wits Historical Papers and was accessible only to scholars. D.S. Matjila and Karen Haire have mined the archive to produce the first English translation of Molema’s biography, Lover of His People. Molema balances Plaatje’s public and political persona – as a pioneer black politician and man of letters – with an intimate account of Plaatje, the human being: his physical features, habits, temperament, talents, personality, character, fears, struggles, dreams and aspirations. He illuminates the spirit of Plaatje, painting a personal portrait. Recognising that the biographer was an extraordinary scholar, intellectual and politician in his own right, the book includes an essay on the life and legacy of Seetsele Modiri Molema and his contribution to South Africa’s black intellectual heritage. The editors highlight some of the ways in which the book might be relevant to contemporary South African readers and, in inspiring them about a local historical figure, prompt critical thinking about pertinent issues such as gender, the future of African languages and the re-writing of history.

Sujets

• Love
• Love (disambiguation)
• Africa
• History
• General
• History of Africa
• General officer
• Histoire
• Literary Figures

Informations

• Publié par: WITS University Press
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781868148226
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

LOVER OF HIS PEOPLE
A biography of Sol Plaatje
SEETSELE MODIRI MOLEMA
LOVER OF HIS PEOPLE
A biography of Sol Plaatje
SEETSELE MODIRI MOLEMA
Translated and edited by DS Matjila and Karen Haire
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg
www.witspress.co.za
Copyright in the original Sol T Plaatje: Morata Wabo : heirs of Seetsele Modiri Molema
Copyright in the preface and the translation: the translators and editors 2012
Copyright in the published edition: Wits University Press 2012
Permission for Seetsele Modiri Molema s Sol T Plaatje: Morata Wabo , published in Setswana in 1965, to be translated and published in English was granted by the Molema family to the Sol Plaatje Educational Trust.
First published 2012
ISBN (print) 978-1-86814-601-7
ISBN (EPUB - IPG) 978-1-86814-822-6
ISBN (EPUB - ROW) 978-1-86814-823-3
ISBN (PDF) 978-1-86814-602-4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.
Project managed by Monica Seeber
Cover design and layout by Hothouse South Africa
Printed and bound by Creda Communications
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PREFACE by DS Matjila and Karen Haire
FOREWORD by Seetsele Modiri Molema: A star
Chapter One: FIRST ENCOUNTER AND ACQUAINTANCE
Stature
Distinctive characteristics
Difficulties and burdens
Chapter Two: EARLY DAYS AND YOUTH
Pniel
Kimberley
Chapter Three: AN UNFORGETTABLE YEAR: 1896
Incorporation of British Bechuanaland into Cape Colony
Delegation to seek British protection
Jameson Raid
Rinderpest outbreak
Death of Kushumane Plaatje
Death of Kgosi Montshiwa
Chapter Four: LIFE S CHALENGES
Marriage
Mahikeng
The Essential Interpreter
The Anglo Boer War
Chapter Five: PLAATJE, THE CAREER JOURNALIST
Koranta ea Becoana : The early years
Candid truth: Our just dues
Koranta ea Becoana : The closing years
The undesirable interim job
Chapter Six: GOVERNMENT NEWS
Union of South Africa
The Native Convention
The establishment of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC)
Tengo Jabavu
Tsala ea Becoana
Natives Land Act, Act Number 27 of 1913
Delegation to England 1914
Chapter Seven: CONVENTIONS AND WRITINGS
Native Life in South Africa Before and Since the European War and Boer Rebellion
In praise of Shakespeare
Another delegation, 1919
Other writings
Chapter Eight: DELEGATIONS AND MEETINGS
Canada and the United States
The Brotherhood Movement
Native Affairs Act of 1920
Adapting Shakespeare into Setswana
Setswana orthography
Chapter Nine: LAST MEETINGS AND TRAVELS
Travels to the Congo
Our Heritage and the International Order of True Templars
Family legacy
Chapter Ten: THE LAST ENCOUNTER
Illness and death
The funeral
Memorial
Chapter Eleven: PLAATJE IN HIS OWN WORDS: ENGLISH EXTRACTS
Writings:
From Koranta ea Becoana 25 October 1902: Whiteman s Country
From Koranta ea Becoana November 1902: African Native Convention
From Koranta ea Becoana May 1903: Congratulations to Dr Booker T Washington
From Our Heritage , June 1931: Native law and custom
Addresses:
Welcome to Bishop Levi Coppin MA, DD: Mafeking
Kimberley, June 1931: Whither bound
Chapter Twelve: PLAATJE IN HIS OWN WORDS: SETSWANA EXTRACTS
Writings:
From Koranta ea Becoana , October 1902: A double blow
From Our Heritage , March 1931: The condition of natives under Union
Addresses:
Mahikeng, February 1903: The education of children
Kimberley, February 1931: Every fool will trample him who is mired in the mud
SEETSELE MODIRI MOLEMA OF THE MAHIKENG MOLEMAS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As editors, compilers and translators we should like to thank the Sol Plaatje Educational Trust for facilitating the funding received from the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund for the translation and editing of the manuscript made available by the Molema family of Mahikeng for publication. Johan Cronje, director of the Trust - whose logo appears below - has been immensely helpful and supportive, and we thank him especially.
We thank archivist, Gabriele Mohale, and curator of manuscripts, Michelle Pickover, at the Wits Historical Papers, for assistance given during the course of our research for this publication; and the information librarian at University of Johannesburg (Soweto Campus), Fikiswe Mgengo, who assisted with sourcing books and documents.
We are grateful to Deirdre Pretorius from the department of Graphic Design at the University of Johannesburg who generously assisted with selecting, placing and preparing the photographs; and to Dr Deborah Seddon at Rhodes University for her contribution to the editing; and Rose Holloway from Kimberley who was responsible for the first round of editing.
PREFACE
Seetsele Modiri Molema s Sol T Plaatje: Morata Wabo is the earliest book-length biography of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje. A manuscript long housed in the archives of the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, it is the sole biography written in Plaatje s own language, Setswana. One other eighteen-page tribute with a reflection on Plaatje s life, written by his brother-in-law, Isaiah Bud M belle, is the only other account written by someone who actually knew him. 1 There are by now a number of published Plaatje biographies. These accounts all present him as a pioneer black politician and African man of letters. Seetsele brings a distinctive and quite unique perspective, presenting Plaatje as a man with a destiny in space and time, announced by the cosmos. To Seetsele, Plaatje the human being is felt as integral to, and pulsating through, his identities as politician and man of letters.
Brian Willan s 1984 deeply researched and informative Sol Plaatje: A Biography was the first to be published and is widely used by academics. 2 Peter Midgley s entry in the 2000 Dictionary of Literary Biography on Sol T Plaatje draws primarily on Willan. Subsequently, there has been a trend to make Plaatje biographies more accessible to the general reader. Maureen Rall s Peaceable Warrior (2003) was written for the library-using and museum-going public and The Story of Sol T Plaatje (2010) by Sabata-Mpho Mokae, written in a very accessible style, aims to reach an even broader public readership. 3 The trend shows that knowledge need not, and indeed should not, remain the preserve of an elite few. The time is long overdue for Plaatje to be known to his people and to the broader South African public. Two short biographies intended for young readers and learners have also appeared in recent years: in 1992, John Pampallis s They Fought For Freedom: Sol Plaatje and in 2001, GE de Villiers s Servant of Africa: The Life and Times of Sol T Plaatje .
Willan argues that Plaatje drew on the best of both European and African traditions but, and by his own admission, lack of access to Plaatje in languages other than English means that his biography lacks equal evidence regarding African and Batswana influences on Plaatje. Seetsele s biography, on the other hand, gives equal emphasis to Plaatje s ancestry, Barolong history and Plaatje s socialisation in the Setswana tradition alongside his missionary education and other European influences. Seetsele s is frequently an eyewitness account. When he relates the highs and lows of Koranta ea Becoana , for example, he recalls Plaatje, of an evening, reading the white newspapers aloud to his father. He further recalls how his uncles pitched in to pay the debts when the newspaper folded and creditors descended like vultures. Seetsele occasionally inserts himself unobtrusively in the narrative: I was at that meeting . Thus, when he describes the talks given by the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) delegates in England and Scotland, and when he mentions Plaatje s last illness, the reader is party to the intimacy of one who was present and felt the atmosphere.
Opening a window on the life and times of Sol Plaatje, Seetsele paints a portrait of a very ordinary extraordinary man. Extraordinary because he was, without a shadow of doubt, a man of unrivalled stature who outshone those of his generation , ordinary because of the intimate human details Seetsele recalls, such as his likes - he loved to suck the marrow from the bones after eating meat - and other idiosyncrasies. When he saw or heard something amazing, he would exclaim loudly mogalammakapa as the Batswana elders do, stretching it out for emphasis.
Seetsele s first encounter with this man some fifteen years his senior was unforgettable - Plaatje carved a place in the young boy s heart, mind and soul that was to last a lifetime. Seetsele is the only biographer who balances his account of Plaatje s public and political life with an account of his physical features, habits, temperament, talents, personality, character, fears, struggles, dreams and aspirations. Seetsele, in short, illuminates the spirit of Plaatje.
Among his physical features, Seetsele highlights Plaatje s large head, made bigger by a thick head of hair, thus refuting the white myth that no hair grows on the head of a genius . Among his habits, Seetsele mentions that he would become engrossed at the window of a bookstore and spend his last money there, even if there was no food at home. Of his temperament, Seetsele notes Plaatje s dogged persistence - he would untie a rope knot by knot rather than cut it with a knife. He was also forgiving: If he didn t like something, or was offended, he spoke his feelings angrily, at the time, then, like a flame doused with soil or water and immediately extinguished, he calmly carried on. When you saw him again, he had forgotten the anger and the incident.
Among his exceptio