Novel
Mhudi
Sol Plaatje · 1930
Synopsis
In 1832, the Matabele army of King Mzilikazi destroys Kunana, a Barolong town, to avenge the death of its tax collectors. Mhudi, a young woman who believes herself the sole survivor, wanders in the bush and there meets Ra-Thaga, whom she marries; together they go through dangerous adventures, among lions, where it is often she who saves him, before finding the surviving Barolong again at Thaba Nchu. They then ally with the Boers against the Matabele.
Context
Written around 1920, the novel waited about ten years for a publisher: the Lovedale mission press published it in 1930, in a revised text, and it took the edition by Stephen Gray and Tim Couzens, in 1978, to return to the original. The author presented it as a romance, comparable to Rider Haggard's Zulu novels; critics read it as a response to the European account of the country's history, and praise Mhudi as an active, quick-witted heroine, ahead of her time.
Who it is for
A novel in English, mixing prose and song in the manner of African storytellers; a story of love and war in a precolonial past.
Prizes and reception
The first novel written in English by a Black South African; little noticed when it appeared, it has since attracted growing interest from scholars.