S.M. Molema (1892–1965)

Lover of his people – a biography of Sol Plaatje Seetsele Modiri Molema- translated and edited by D S Matjila and Karen Haire.

Sol Plaatje was a giant South African in his work as an interpreter and translator , doughty political fighter, writer, linguist and editor. His Boer War diary written during the seize of Mafeking gives a unique African perspective of surviving that war It was he who moved the motion to establish the South African Native National Congress as the ANC was then called, at its founding in 1912 and became the first secretary general. He was an active voice in mobilizing opposition to the 1913 Native Land Act. Plaatje was a member of the ANC deputation to raise consciousness in England and wrote Native Life in South Africa during the voyage. His combative journalism gave him a powerful and distinctive voice.

This biography of Plaatje was written in Setswana in the 1960s. One needs to know something about Plaatje for this book to add value to ones store of knowledge. Nonetheless this book is a slight but important addition to the biographic literature on Sol Plaatje. It is slight because it is more of a memoir than a critical or scholarly biography. It is important because it brings to a English readership, an archived little known Setswana manuscript written by Seetsele Modiri Molema, who knew and admired Plaatje. Setswana was Plaatje’s mother tongue.

The work has been translated and edited by D S Matjila and Karen Haire who have added an introductory prefatory essay about the manuscript and the context for this particular biographical study. The manuscript comprises fewer than 90 pages but three supplementary chapters of extracts of Plaatje’s writings in English and Setswana ( translated into English) and some information on Seetsele Modiri Molema adds depth. The editors have provided a framework of chapter notes to explain perhaps unfamiliar terms or places or provide contextual information. There could be more biographical information about the contemporary people mentioned in the text . A bibliography usefully lists all other biographies to date.

The appeal of the Molema text is its warmth and humanity and very human portrait of Plaatje. In this it has something of the feel of a long funeral oration but also highlights that Molema was himself an important contributor to South Africa’s black literary and cultural heritage.

The book is meant to reach beyond a scholarly audience and could well be a useful historical and literary teaching text. Although written in the 1960s and in a voice of its time, many of the issues touched on such a gender, historical interpretation and the future of African languages are as topical today as they were in the times of both Plaatje and Molema. The book reproduces some unusual black and white photographs of Plaatjes and his world. It is fitting that Wits University Press has published this work in the 100 anniversary year of the ANC. It is a tribute to Plaatje and draws attention to the important Plaate archives in the Wits Historical Papers. .

Reviewed by K A Munro… (más)