author
Sol. T. (Solomon Tshekisho) Plaatje
1876–1932
A pioneering South African writer, journalist, and political organizer, he used language and storytelling to challenge injustice. Best known for "Native Life in South Africa," he also helped found the movement that became the ANC and wrote one of the first English novels by a Black South African.
1 Audiobook
Native Life in South Africa Before and Since the European War and the Boer Rebellion
by Sol. T. (Solomon Tshekisho) Plaatje
About the author
Born on 9 October 1876 in the Orange Free State, Sol T. Plaatje grew up with limited formal schooling but became an extraordinary linguist, learning several African and European languages. He worked as a court interpreter and then as a journalist, building a reputation for clear, forceful writing and deep public engagement.
Plaatje was a founding member and the first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress in 1912, the organization that later became the African National Congress. He campaigned tirelessly against the 1913 Natives Land Act, and his great political work, Native Life in South Africa (1916), remains one of the most important firsthand accounts of that system's human cost.
He was also a major literary figure. Plaatje wrote Mhudi, widely recognized as one of the first English-language novels by a Black South African, and he translated works including Shakespeare into Setswana. He died on 19 June 1932, but his legacy still lives on in South African literature, journalism, and public life.