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3203 Southeast Woodstock Boulevard, Portland, Oregon 97202-8199

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with Reed Anthropology Professor Betsey Brada

Sol Plaatje (1876-1932) was a Tswana intellectual, journalist, and translator who was among the founding members of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which would eventually become the African National Congress (ANC). This event will focus on Plaatje's political commentary on early 20th century South Africa in two distinct but related forms: The first is his novel, Mhudi (1930), a historical romance set during the turbulence of the early 19th century in the southern African interior known as mfeqane; the second is his pamphlet, Native Life in South Africa (1916), written to persuade the British government of the injustice of the 1913 Natives Land Act, legislation that resulted in the massive disenfranchisement of Black South Africans and that was not replaced until 1991. Mhudi is a site wherein Plaatje imagines, amid the increasing disempowerment of Black South Africans, what justice might have looked like in the early colonial encounter.

Comparative Race and Ethnicity Studies (CRES) invites you to CRES Colloquium, a series of discussions of classic works, contemporary events, and student research. All are welcome! For Plaatje readings and to join the CRES mailing list, please contact cwilcox@reed.edu.

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