Revisiting Sol Plaatje’s Mafeking Diary

Abstract

Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (1876–1932) is one of South Africa’s best known political and literary figures, his novel Mhudi now part of the literary canon. Yet his Mafeking Diary, written during the siege of Mafeking, one of the best known episodes of the South African War of 1899–1902, has been surprisingly neglected. In this article I suggest that this may have to do with the indeterminate status of the genre of the diary, and the fact that it does not fit in easily with a nationalist narrative that has privileged the political. In arguing for its importance, I look at the social and intellectual influences that helped form Plaatje’s world view as reflected in the diary; the circumstances in which he wrote it; his reasons for writing it; who he envisaged would read it; how its nature and form were affected by the events that went on around him; the choices he made about what to include and what to omit; the literary models upon which he drew; the linguistic choices he made; the opportunities the diary provided to develop not only his literary skills but a wider sense of self.