Sol Plaatje’s Mhudi: History, Criticism, Celebration, edited by Sol Plaatje University’s (SPU) academics Sabata-mpho Mokae and Professor Brian Willan, has been put on the long list for the 2021 Human and Social Sciences (HSS) Awards alongside seasoned contributors such as Zakes Mda, Antjie Krog and Laurence Wright.
The annual HSS awards are hosted by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) aimed at recognising outstanding writers, contributors and publishing houses that enhance and advance the fields of Human Social Sciences. Mokae and Willan are listed in the best non-fiction edited volume category.
The award ceremony will be held on 31 March 2021 at a venue still to be confirmed.
About Sol Plaatje’s Mhudi: History, Criticism, Celebration
Launched in November 2020, Sol Plaatje’s Mhudi: History, Criticism, Celebration is a collection of academic essays marking hundred years of Sol Plaatje’s novel Mhudi and incorporates a distinguished cast of contributors that explore the circumstances in which Mhudi was both written and published, what the critics have made of it and why it remains so relevant today. Two of these contributors are SPU’s Creative Writing lecturer Sizakele Mokhele and Associate Professor, Professor Karen Haire.
Editors of Sol Plaatje’s Mhudi: History, Criticism, Celebration Sabata-mpho Mokae (far left) and Professor Brian Willan (far right) with two of the contributors, Sizakele Mokhele (middle right) and Professor Karen Haire (middle left), at one of the meetings where the book was discussed.
Chapters in this book look at the eponymous feminist heroine of the novel and what she symbolizes, the role of history and oral tradition, the contentious question of language, the linguistic and stylistic choices that Plaatje made. In keeping with Mhudi’s capacity to inspire, this book also includes a poem and short story, specially written to pay tribute to both the book and its author.
Sol Plaatje’s Mhudi: History, Criticism, Celebration will also be launched by an established academic publication James Carrey in London, England on 24 February 2021.
Sol Plaatje University wishes the editors all the best at this years HSS Awards.
