Sol Plaatje

PLAATJE, Solomon Tshekisho [1] (1876–1932) was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator, poet, novelist, historian, and playwright. Edited the Mafeking newspaper Koranta ea Becoana for seven years, and was court interpreter during the Siege of Mafeking. The first general secretary of the African National Congress (1912), going to London as part of the delegation to oppose the Land Act of 1913. Stayed there for a number of years.

His books include Native Life in South Africa (1916) and the novel Mhudi (1930). As playwright he translated a number of plays into Setswana, including William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (as Dintshontsho tsa bo-Julius Kesara (1937), A Comedy of Errors (193* as Diphoshophosho).

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