Figure 17: The South African Native National Congress (SANNC) deputation to England, 1914. Left to right: Thomas Mapikela, Rev. W B Rubusana, Rev. John Dube, Saul Msane, Sol Plaatje.
Figure 18: On board the SS Norseman, on his way to England in May 1914, Plaatje began writing what would become Native Life in South Africa, published by P S King & Son, London, in 1916.
Figure 19: Betty Molteno and Alice Greene, supporters of Plaatje's campaigns in both England and South Africa. Betty Molteno also contributed to the costs of his journey to North America in 1920.
Figure 20: Sophie Colenso (right), with her daughters Eothan (left) and Irma (centre), at Elangeni, their home in Amersham, near London. Plaatje was a regular visitor during his stay in London.
Figure 21: During his time in England Plaatje enjoyed the support of the Brotherhood movement and addressed over 150 of their meetings, including one in Peterborough on 18 July 1915, advertised in this flyer.
Figure 22: Brotherhood meetings addressed by Plaatje and other members of the SANNC deputation in 1914 and 1915, as listed in Native Life in South Africa (P S King & Son, London, 1916).
Figure 23: John Harris, Secretary of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines' Protection Society. Plaatje wrote that he ‘spent 11 months fighting Harris who was battling to suppress Native Life in the Press’.
Figure 24: Georgiana Solomon, suffragette, campaigner, embodiment of the Cape liberal tradition, and widow of Cape politician and newspaper editor Saul Solomon, was a friend and supporter of Sol Plaatje.
Figure 25: The title page of Plaatje's Sechuana Proverbs with Literal Translations and their European Equivalents, published in London (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd) at the same time as Native Life in South Africa (P S King & Son).
Figure 26: The Natives' Land Commission, set up under the provisions of the Land Act and chaired by William Henry Beaumont, published a report in two volumes in 1916. Plaatje saw it as vindication of his case that its main aim was ‘the reduction of all the black subjects of the King from their former state of semi-independence to one of complete serfdom’.
Figure 27: Areas shaded in this Union of South Africa map were recommended as Scheduled Native Areas by the Land Act and the marked numbers indicate the areas described in Schedules 1–4 of The Report of the Natives' Land Commission. The map forms Appendix VII of the report's first volume and Plaatje reproduced it in later editions of Native Life in South Africa.
Figure 28: Members of the South African Native Labour Contingent being inspected by King George V of England, in France, 17 July 1917.
Figure 29: The troopship SS Mendi sank off the Isle of Wight on 21 February 1917 following a collision with another vessel. Over 600 officers and men of the South African Native Labour Contingent lost their lives.
Figure 30: M K Gandhi (1869–1948). Plaatje and Gandhi were both determined newspaper editors and publishers who became imperial political activists, mobilising the institutions and publics of the metropolis against the racist innovations in South Africa.
Figure 31: W E B Du Bois (1868–1963), academic, journalist, Pan-Africanist, civil rights pioneer and an important contact of Plaatje's during his visit to the United States in 1921 and 1922.
Figure 32: Chief Khama (1837–1923), the Christian Chief of the Bamangwato in Bechuanaland (now Botswana).
Figure 33: The clock tower at the Tiger Kloof Educational Institution near Vryburg – the clock was a gift from Chief Khama.
Figure 34: Staff of the newspaper Abantu Batho (The People), founded in 1912 and closely associated with the early history of the African National Congress. It continued until 1930.
Figure 35: Title page of Plaatje's novel, Mhudi, published by Lovedale Press in 1930. Mhudi picks up on some of the historical events described in Native Life in South Africa, exploring them in fictional form, but with a clear political message.
Figure 36: Plaatje's gravestone in the West End Cemetery, Kimberley. It was erected in 1935, three years after his death at the age of 55. Elizabeth Plaatje died ten years after her husband.
Figure 37: The afterlife of Native Life in South Africa. Covers from editions published by Ravan Press, 1982 and 1995, and Picador Africa, 2007.
Figure 38: The afterlife of Native Life in South Africa. Covers from editions published by Ravan Press, 1982 and 1995, and Picador Africa, 2007.
Figure 39: The afterlife of Native Life in South Africa. Covers from editions published by Ravan Press, 1982 and 1995, and Picador Africa, 2007.
Figure 40: The 2015 removal of Rhodes's statue from its plinth at the University of Cape Town following student activism for transformational change.
CHAPTER 1
NATIVE LIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA WRITING, PUBLICATION, RECEPTION
Brian Willan
Native Life in South Africa is remarkable not just for what it is but for how it came into being, its writing and publication, in the face of considerable odds, a triumph of the first order. But it was a close run thing: it could very easily have failed to see the light of day. This chapter aims to tell that story.
The