F197.
Writer & Righter of Wrongs: One Hundred Years of Influence through Sol Plaatje’s Mhudi
Friday, March 25, 2022
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm
Writer and activist Sol Plaatje was more than just the first Black African to write a novel in English. His female-centric allegory, concerned with injustice and land dispossession, maintains relevancy in academic discussion, essay, and course curricula. Reading from his life and work, highlighting his political as well as his literary importance, panelists will examine how Plaatje explored issues of race, culture, gender, and language to make a lasting impact and remain influential today.
Participants
MarLa Sink Druzgal is the director of WriteChange.org—a nonprofit organization in global coordination with The Writers Project of Ghana and Sol Plaatje University (SPU) of South Africa. Ms. Druzgal teaches in the US and South Africa, where she is working with SPU on an MA travel writing program.
Sabata-mpho Mokae is the author of the Setswana (southern African language) novels Ga ke Modisa and Moletlo wa Manong. He is the winner of the South African MNET Literary Award for Best Setswana Novel and MNET Film Award. He teaches creative writing at Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley, South Africa.
Lesego Malepe taught at a college for many years before retiring and turning to writing full-time. She writes both fiction and nonfiction about South Africa and has contributed a chapter on land issues in a recently published collection of essays on Mhudi.
Brian Willan is a historian and former publisher, currently Extraordinary Professor at Sol Plaatje University in Kimberley, South Africa. He has written a biography of Sol Plaatje and coedited several books books about him, including Sol Plaatje's Mhudi and Sol Plaatje: A Life in Letters.
