Mhudi
by Sol T. Plaatje
Tswana farming and hunting set the scene for a South African saga.
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Opening lines
Two centuries ago the Bechuana tribes inhabited the extensive areas between Central Transvaal and the Kalahari Desert. Their entire world lay in the geography covered by the story in these pages.
In this domain they led their patriarchal life under their several Chiefs who owed no allegiance to any king or emperor. They raised their native corn which satisfied their simple wants, and, when not engaged in hunting or in pastoral duties, the peasants whiled away their days in tanning skins or sewing magnificent fur rugs. They also smelted iron and manufactured useful implements which to-day would be pronounced very crude by their semi-westernized descendants.
Cattle breeding was the rich…
About the book
Mhudi is a South African novel by Sol Plaatje, first published in 1930 after being completed in 1920. It is a political historical novel exploring the development of the Transvaal kingdom under Matabeleland leadership, re-envisioning the Eurocentric narrative of history that supported Apartheid and its racist infrastructure. Plaatje described it as a romance, comparing it to H. Rider Haggard's Zulu novels.
About the author
Sol T. Plaatje (9 October 1876 – 19 June 1932) was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. He was a founding member and first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the African National Congress; the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, which includes the city of Kimberley, and Sol Plaatje University in that city are named after him.
Summary prepared with AI from Wikipedia: Mhudi (CC BY-SA)
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