Table of Contents

Abbreviations; List of Illustrations; Foreword - Njabulo Ndebele; Reproduction of Bessie Head's Foreword to Ravan Edition (1982); Poetic Tributes; 'Lefatshe, nkometse' - SeTswana Poem with English translation 'Earth, Swallow Me' (Sabata-mpho Mokae); 'What is in a Name? In Memory of Sol T. Plaatje' (Violet Plaatje, 1933); 'Segopoco Sa Moshui Sol T. Plaatje' (James M. Malebaloa, 1933) with English translation from SeTswana (Nhlanhla Maake); Introduction (Editors); Chapter 1: Native Life in South Africa: Writing, Publication, Reception (Brian Willan); Chapter 2: Modernist At Large: The Aesthetics of Native Life in South Africa (Bhekizizwe Peterson); Chapter 3: The Print World of the Press and Native Life in South Africa (Peter Limb); Chapter 4: Going Places - Native Life in South Africa and the Politics of Mobility (Janet Remmington); Chapter 5: Native Life in South Africa and the World at War (Albert Grundlingh); Chapter 6: African Intellectual History, Black Cosmopolitanism and Native Life in South Africa (Khwezi Mkhize); Chapter 7: 'Native Lives' behind Native Life: Intellectual and Political Influences on the Early ANC and Democracy in South Africa (Andre Odendaal); Chapter 8: Whose Past? Native Life in South Africa and Historical Writing (Christopher Saunders); Chapter 9: Women and Society in Native Life in South Africa: Roles and Ruptures (Heather Hughes); Chapter 10: African Progressivism, Land, and Law: Rereading Native Life in South Africa (Keith Breckenridge); Chapter 11: Land Questions: On the Tomb ya ga Solomon Plaatje (Jacob Dlamini); Chapter 12: Revisiting the Landscapes of Native Life in South Africa: A Photo Essay (Sean O'Toole); A Contemporary Reimagining 'Ask Those You Meet along the Way' - A Short Story (Sabata-mpho Mokae); Notes on Contributors; Plaatje Resources and Archives; Bibliography; Index.

About the Author

Janet Remmington is a publisher, researcher, and writer.

Brian Willan is an honorary research fellow at Rhodes University. He edited and introduced the Ravan Press edition of Native Life in South Africa in 1982. This was followed by a biography of Plaatje (Heinemann: 1984) and a collection of Plaatje’s writings (Wits University Press: 1997).

Bhekizizwe Peterson is professor of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand. His books include Monarchs, Missionaries and African Intellectuals: African Theatre and the Unmaking of Colonial Marginality (Wits University Press; 2000), and Zulu Love Letter: A Screenplay (Wits University Press:2009).

Reviews

"This suite of essays focuses on a remarkable individual - but is about so much more than just one man. This is a superb collection of poems, provocations, photos, stories and academic essays - some of which are delightfully at odds with one another." - Sandra Swart, Stellenbosch University