[Sunday times] Decolonisation is not only about the ‘land question’

Updated: Jun 24

“Awaking on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African native

found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth.”

Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje opens the first chapter of his Native Life in

South Africa with this well-known declaration.

Plaatje wrote most of the manuscript for Native Life in 1914 aboard a

ship to England. He was travelling with a team of four other leaders of

the South African Native National Congress (later the ANC). The

deputation’s mission was to entreat the British government to nullify

the Natives Land Act of 1913.

Picture credit: ANC Archives

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