Mhudi
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Mhudi: An Epic of South African Native Life a Hundred Years Ago is a South African novel by Sol Plaatje first published in 1930, and the first novel by a Black African published in English. The novel was republished many times subsequently, including in the influential Heinemann African Writers Series.
The novel is a political historical novel which explores the development of the Traansval kingdom, led by Matabeleland.[1] The novel was originally finished in 1920, but Plaatje was unable to get the novel published.[2] The novel re-invisions the standard Euro-centric narrative of history, which supported Apartheid and its racist infrastructure.[2]
Plaatje described the novel as a romance, comparing it to Zulu novels of H. Rider Haggard.[1]
Further reading[edit]
- Johnson, David (1 December 1994). "Literature for the rainbow nation: The case of sol Plaatje's Mhudi". Journal of Literary Studies. 10 (3–4): 345–358. doi:10.1080/02564719408530088. ISSN 0256-4718.
- Chrisman, Laura (2000). "Complex Relations: African Nationalism, Imperialism, and Form in Mhudi". Rereading the Imperial Romance: British Imperialism and South African Resistance in Haggard, Schreiner, and Plaatje. Oxford Scholarship Online. pp. 187–208. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122999.003.0009. ISBN 9780198122999.
References[edit]
- ^ a b Chennells, Anthony (1 May 1997). "Plotting South African History: Narrative in Sol Plaatje's "Mhudi"". English in Africa. 24 (1): 37–58. ISSN 0376-8902. JSTOR 40238835.
- ^ a b Sanders, Mark (25 December 2002). "Sol T Plaatje:The Essential Interpreter". Complicities: The Intellectual and Apartheid. Duke University Press. pp. 40–60. ISBN 978-0822329985. R. R. R. Dhlomo's novella An African Tragedy (1928) consequently preceded it in publication.
See also[edit]
- Guanya Pau: A Story of an African Princess 1891 Liberian English language novel
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