Annual Research Report 2020

7 As “the most accomplished scholar of his generation” (Rive 1993), Plaatje possessed remarkable gifts of memory, knowledge, orato- ry, languages and words. Through his gifts, his learning and his life work, he was a man of words, a master of the spoken and written word. By necessity and compelled by botho , he inserted himself into politics and, as a founding member of the ANC, travelled to England and the US to champion the political struggle and the liberation of his people. His was possibly one of the ablest pens among the sons of Africa. Plaatje could handle words like a skilled surgeon, elucidating and deciphering “the hidden intentions of legislators”, and unravelling “the malevolence and obnoxious pur- pose of legislation with eloquence” (Molema 2012, 64). His words, even in his most scathing and trenchant critique, were infused with humanity. “The boyhood of Solomon Plaatje was just like that of other Batswana children. When he was six or seven, he herded goats and then herded cows until the age of nine. He travelled on foot, in an ordinary boy’s shirt, and wore traditional sandals. His language was the Setswana of his mother and he soon learned other languages, the Herero language and the Korana of his friends. He differed from other children, in that he learned to read and spell at the age of five. By the age of six, he had learned to read Setswana fluently, to read folktales and to write” (Molema 2012, 6). Herding goats, sheep, and cows was an essential aspect of a boy’s education in the Batswana culture. The cattle-post was a boy’s first classroom. Indeed, life lessons were taught at the moraka (the cattle post) by the men through discussing the news, relating stories, and imparting knowledge and responsibility for caring for livestock and cattle. This way, Plaatje became knowledgeable about cattle, and imbibed the culture and history of his people. The Batswana men who instructed the boys at the moraka appar- ently saw the gifts of this particular young boy, for he would read the newspaper to them in the evening as they sewed their kaross- es. His gifts of knowledge, memory, storytelling and languages were also immediately noticed by both the missionaries and fel- low-pupils when he started school. The missionaries at Pniel took a keen interest in this polite, gifted and ambitious Morolong. A fel- low pupil at the mission school never tired of recounting Plaatje’s remarkable ability and popularity with both pupils and teachers. None of the teachers regarded Plaatje as average. Rather, they had discovered an intelligent child endowed with a special talent for linguistics. With his multilingualism Plaatje displayed the spirit of the ‘modern’ South African who typically speaks a number of languages. Plaatje mastered eight languages: Setswana, Sepedi, Sesotho, isiXhosa, isiZulu, English, Dutch, and German. His gift with languages made him a successful court interpreter and trans- lator. As a linguist, Plaatje polished his gifts tirelessly. He began his research in the Setswana language early, publishing bilingual texts in 1916 in England, and became increasingly dedicated to research in the Setswana language towards the end of his life. “Plaatje was like a king … He was born great. He was a real genius … he was the only genius I have ever met, really” (Lekhela 2001). Plaatje was a thinker among thinkers and a writer among writers. In 1975, after reading Plaatje’s novel Mhudi , Bessie Head wrote the whole book out, word for word, by hand: “When I read this beautiful book, I was absolutely in despair … The whole book is beautiful. It is more than a classic; there is just no book on earth like it. All the stature and grandeur of the writer are in it” (cited in Couzens 1996). It took many decades before scholars, Couzens and Willan, could eventually declare that Plaatje would become one of South African’s “most important writers, black or white” (Couzens and Willan 1976). In 2004, a Setswana scholar, Shole, rightly declared Plaatje “our first Motswana man of letters”. Plaatje more than anyone else, “set out single-handedly to teach his countrymen that there was a literary future for Tswana” (Eiselen 1994). Hence, he is rightfully the father of modern Setswana literature. A career journalist, Plaatje pioneered Setswana journalism, ed- iting the first Setswana-English newspapers, owned and run by the Batswana themselves: Koranta ea Becoana , a Mahikeng-based newspaper, from 1902–1908; Tsala ea Becoana , a Kimberley-based newspaper, from 1910–1912 and Tsala ea Batho , from 1912–1915. All his life, he freelanced for newspapers around the world, especially when he travelled to England and the US. There is a treasure-trove of journalism in both English and Setswana yet to be published and made available to researchers. Matjila, D.S., and K. Haire 2015. Bringing Sol T. Plaatje Back Home (Ga E Phetsolele Nageng): Re-Storying the African and Batswana Sensibilities in his Oeuvre . Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press. A South African Intellectual: Solomon Thekisho Plaatje (1876–1932) “ Plaatje was like a king … He was born great. He was a real genius, he was the only genius I have ever met, really. He began his research in Setswana language early, publishing bilingual texts in 1916 in England and became increasingly dedicated to research in Setswana language towards the end of his life .”