SOL PLAATJE'S "MHUDI", history, criticism, celebration

248pp.,illus., paperback, Johannesburg, 2020

A collection of non-fiction, poetry and short stories celebrating Sol Plaatje's Mhudi, the first full-length novel in English to have been written by a black South African, originally published in 1930.

The contributors are Jenny du Preez, Karen Haire, Antjie Krog, Lesego Malepe, Zakes Mda, Sabata-mpho Mokae, Siza Nkosi-Mokhele, Bhekizizwe Peterson, Eileen Pooe, Shole J. Shole, Chris Thurman, Brian Willan and Laurence Wright.

Academic, translator and writer Sabata-mpho Mokae is the author of the biography The Story of Sol T.Plaatje. He won the 2013 M-Net Literary Award for Best Setswana Novel and the South African Literary Award in 2011 and again in 2019. He teaches Creative Writing at Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley.

Brian Willan is Extraordinary Professor at Sol Plaatje University and North West University, and Senior Research Associate at the Institute for the Study of English, Rhodes University. His most recent book, Sol Plaatje: a life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, 1876-1932, won an award for non-fiction (biography) from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2020.