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First published in 1916, Sol Plaatje{u2019}s Native Life in South Africa was written by one of the South Africa{u2019}s most talented early twentieth-century black leaders and journalists. Plaatje{u2019}s pioneering book arose out of an early African National Congress campaign to protest against the discriminatory1913 Natives Land Act. Native Life vividly narrates Plaatje{u2019}s investigative journeying into South Africa{u2019}s rural heartlands to report on the effects of the Act and his involvement in the deputation to the British imperial government. At the same time it tells the bigger story of the assault on black rights and opportunities in the newly consolidated Union of South Africa - and the resistance to it. Originally published in war-time London, but about South Africa and its place in the world, Native Life travelled far and wide, being distributed in the United States under the auspices of prominent African-American W E B Du Bois. South African editions were to follow only in the late apartheid period and beyond. The aim of this multi-authored volume is to shed new light on how and why Native Life came into being at a critical historical juncture, and to reflect on how it can be read in relation to South Africa{u2019}s heightened challenges today. Crucial areas that come under the spotlight in this collection include land, race, history, mobility, belonging, war, the press, law, literature, language, gender, politics, and the state Sol T Plaatje and the 'power of all' / Njabulo S Ndebele -- Introduction -- Native Life in South Africa -- then and now / Janet Remmington, Brian Willan and Bhekizizwe Peterson -- Editions of Native Life in South Africa: 1916 to the present -- Looking back: Foreword to Ravan Press edition of Native Life in South Africa, 1982 / Bessie Head -- Poetic tributes: What is in a name? In memory of Sol T Plaatje / Violet N Plaatje -- Segopoco Sa Moshui Sol T Plaatje / James M Molebaloa -- In memory of the late Sol T Plaatje / James M Molebaloa (translated by Nhlanhla Maake) -- Lefatshe, nkometse / Sabata-mpho Mokae -- Earth, swallow me / Sabata-mpho Mokae -- Native Life in South Africa: Writing, publication, reception / Brian Willan -- Modernist at large: The aesthetics of Native Life in South Africa / Bhekizizwe Peterson -- The print world of the press and Native Life in South Africa / Peter Limb -- Going places: Native Life in South Africa and the politics of mobility / Janet Remmington -- Native Life in South Africa and the world at war / Albert Grundlingh -- African intellectual history, black cosmopolitanism and Native Life in South Africa / Khwezi Mkhize -- 'Native Lives' behind Native Life: Intellectual and political influences on the ANC and democratic South Africa / Andre Odendaal -- Whose past? Native Life in South Africa and historical writing / Christopher Sounders -- Women and society in Native Life in South Africa: Roles and ruptures / Heather Hughes -- African progressivism, land and law: Re-reading Native Life in South Africa / Keith Breckenridge -- Land and belonging: On the tomb ya ga Solomon Plaatje / Jacob Dlamini -- Revisiting the landscapes of Native Life / Sean O'Toole -- A contemporary reimagining: The road to Dikhudung / Sabata-mpho Mokae
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