This etext was prepared by Alan R. Light (alight@vnet.net, formerly
alight@mercury.interpath.net, etc.). To assure a high quality text,the original was typed in (manually) twice and electronically compared.
Native Life in South Africa, Before and Sincethe European War and the Boer RebellionBy Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje
[South African (ethnic Tswana) Editor, Author, Statesman. 1876?-1932.]First Secretary-General of the South African Native National Congress(forerunner of the ANC), 1912-1917. Author of "Mhudi",generally considered the first novel written by a black South African.
[The two portraits are not available for this ASCII text. They are titled"The Author." and "Mrs. S. T. Plaatje. Without whose loyal co-operationthis book would never have been written."]
[Note on text: Italicized words or phrases are CAPITALIZED.
Some obvious errors have been corrected (see Notes).]
Native Life in South Africa, Before and Sincethe European War and the Boer Rebellion
By Sol. T. Plaatje
Editor of `Tsala ea Batho', Kimberley, S.A.
Author of `Sechuana Proverbs and their European Equivalents'
Fourth Edition
Foreword (Native Life in South Africa electronic text):
Sol Plaatje began work on `Native Life in South Africa' in 1914,while on his way to Britain to plead with the Imperial Governmentagainst the Natives' Land Act of 1913, as part of a deputationof the South African Native National Congress. The book was intendedas a means of reaching the British public with the deputation's message.
The method seemed sound enough — it was quite similar in formto the successful deputation which had pleaded to keep Bechuanaland(modern Botswana) under direct Imperial control in 1895.But circumstances were different in 1914 — South Africahad been granted self-government, and the First World War beganshortly after the deputation's arrival in England and distracted all parties.This latter event also influenced the final form of the book,as Plaatje played to the patriotic sentiment so strong in Britain at the time.For all his appeals, Plaatje did not succeed: the Act went on to becomeone of the first steps toward the system of Apartheid. For all that,there is sometimes in defeat the seeds of victory — these troublesunited black South Africans like nothing before, and Plaatje's successors,in the form of the ANC, finally succeeded in the early 1990's.
The Natives' Land Act of 1913, which forbade natives to buy or rent land,except in a few small reserves consisting largely of wasteland,was finally overturned in 1991.
Thanks should be given to Neil Parsons, for his advice on this subject,and for being so kind as to research and write the introduction that follows.
Alan R. Light
July, 1998.
Monroe, North Carolina (USA).
Introduction, by Neil Parsons
"Native Life in South Africa" is one of the most remarkable books on Africa,by one of the continent's most remarkable writers. It was writtenas a work of impassioned political propaganda, exposing the plightof black South Africans under the whites-only government of newly unifiedSouth Africa. It focuses on the effects of the 1913 Natives' Land Actwhich introduced a uniform system of land segregation between the races.It resulted,