Sol T Plaatje

Sol T. Plaatje was a writer and politician born in Doornfontein near Boshof, Orange Free State (now Free State Province, South Africa) in 1876. Plaatje was a founding member of the South African Native National Congress which is known today as the African National Congress (ANC). Throughout his life, he travelled across Europe and North America in order to educate the wider world on the oppression happening in South Africa. Fluent in over seven languages, he was the first Black writer in South Africa to write a book in English, with his novel Mhudi. While the book was completed in 1920, it was not published until 1930 due to its controversial discussion of colonialism in Africa. Plaatje died in 1932.