B rian W illan . Sol Plaatje

In 1917, Sol Plaatje demurred when asked to serve as the second president of the South African Native National Congress—later known as the African National Congress. In a telling quote, Plaatje explained, “There are only sixteen working hours in a day, and I could not possibly find the time to earn my living while trying to lead the unwieldy masses” (329). Appearing halfway through Brian Willan’s magisterial new biography, Sol Plaatje: A Life of Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, 1876–1932, this story encapsulates Willan’s central argument about Plaatje’s life: Plaatje had an extraordinary capacity for work, and his wide-ranging professional commitments often superseded his heralded work with Congress. Plaatje was a man of many firsts: not only the first general secretary of Congress, he was also a leading writer and public intellectual of his era. Willan vividly depicts Plaatje as an ambitious self-made young man, rising from a modest formal education...

Argument (complex analysis) · Biography · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public life · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Classics · History · Law · Medicine · South African History and Culture