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Mhudi

3.19 of 5 stars 3.19 · rating details · 58 ratings · 7 reviews

Mhudi, the first full-length novel in English by a black South African, was written in the late 1910s. A romantic epic set in the first half of the nineteenth century, the main action is unleashed by King Mzilikazi's extermination campaign against the Barolong in 1832 at Kunana (nowadays Setlagole), and covers the resultant alliance of defeated peoples with Boer frontiersm...more

Paperback, 200 pages

Published August 30th 2006 by Penguin Global (first published 1970)

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Feb 22, 2012 windy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: around-the-world

Apart from its historical status as the first novel by a black South African, this is an enjoyable historical novel, but not an especially outstanding one. The two main characters (who meet and become a couple in exile after a massacre of their tribe by a rival nation) are fun, especially the independent-minded Mhudi, but a little too noble to feel realistic. Despite this, it's not a black-and-white story of good and evil: it documents the uneasy alliances of the time between natives and the Boe...more

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Mar 04, 2010 Leah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Mhudi was the first book assigned for my current English class, Multicultural Literary Studies. The class focuses on African and Caribbean literature, neither of which I'm very familiar with. My professor is a 60-year-old feisty black woman who grew up in the rural Midwest and has traveled to Africa several times (Senegal, South Africa, and Swaziland I believe). Forgive me for my brief departure from the book review, but I just have to say that I love this professor. Most of the class is spent l...more Mhudi was the first book assigned for my current English class, Multicultural Literary Studies. The class focuses on African and Caribbean literature, neither of which I'm very familiar with. My professor is a 60-year-old feisty black woman who grew up in the rural Midwest and has traveled to Africa several times (Senegal, South Africa, and Swaziland I believe). Forgive me for my brief departure from the book review, but I just have to say that I love this professor. Most of the class is spent listening to her tell stories about her life, childhood, and travels as they relate to our texts. And I don't think anyone in the class would complain. Unfortunately, she became ill at the beginning of the semester and was hospitalized with pneumonia. After sitting through three weeks of writing chapter summaries for a substitute who had no clue what was going on, I breathed a sigh of relief when she was able to return last Tuesday. She told us that when she got home from the hospital she was looking forward to going to the local bar and having a beer, a cigarette, and some fried chicken. Unfortunately, her friends had taken away her keys and left her with yogurt, vegetables, and Tofurky. The last of which she said was pretty good if you had it with some lettuce and tomato. Anyway.

Mhudi is a notable book because it was the first full-length novel to be written in English by a black South African. It's an epic tale that centers around the eponymous heroine and is set during a time of great change in the country, namely, the wars of the 1830s. Under the rule of King Mzilikazi, a tribe of fierce warriors known as the Matabele is quickly dominating a vast area of Barolong territory. When Mzilikazi sends two messengers to the capital city, Kunana, to collect a tribute, the chief of Kunana has them killed. In retaliation, the Matabele raid the town. The massacre leaves the majority of the inhabitants dead (including women and children). Ra-Thaga, a survivor of the attack, travels alone for several days before coming across Mhudi, a fellow survivor. They fall in love and create a home for themselves in the forest. Because of their solitude and the unique circumstances of their meeting, their union is very different from traditional marriages. They are no longer bound by traditional rituals and roles pertaining to culture and gender. Mhudi is daring and feisty, while Ra-Thaga is perhaps more tender-hearted than is typical.

The novel follows the couple as they move to a village where other refugees from Kunana are living. At this point, many Dutch immigrants, voortrekkers, are traveling through the country searching for land to settle. They are prejudiced against the native population, but the two peoples are united in their dislike of Mzilikazi and the Matabele. Ra-Thaga strikes up an unlikely friendship with one of the settlers, or Boers, and they spend much time together, socializing and learning each others' languages. The Boers and the Barolong eventually team up to defeat the Matabele and drive them back out of the Barolong territory. Mhudi remains a pivotal character because she consistently defies the expectations of her as a wife and mother. She is so devoted to her husband that she travels to find him whenever she senses danger, which includes going to the battlefront (something that both pleases and embarrasses Ra-Thaga).

Overall I really enjoyed this novel. I'm not sure whether I'd re-read it but it was definitely worthwhile and introduced me to South African literature and history, two things I really don't know much about at all. Looking forward to what the rest of this class will bring...

Signing Off,
Leah(less)

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Sep 04, 2007 Del rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: students interested in African history and folktales

Shelves: booksyoucanborrow

Mhudi is a romance set against the historical backdrop of South African tribes’ clashes with each other and with white colonialists in the 1830’s. It is set in eastern South Africa, and its principal characters are Mhudi and Ra-Thaga, a Barolong couple who meet and marry after their village is destroyed by the fierce Matabele tribe. The Matabele are ruled by Mzilikazi, whose reputation as an unreasonable, bloodthirsty tyrant has forced most area tribes into fearful submission. In the end, howeve...more

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Nov 28, 2010 Leslie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: international-and-translation

Plaatje creates a timeless, almost mythical feel in this story of survival and the need for human connections in a violent and uncertain world. The ending is ambiguous: Ra-Thaga and Mhudi head into a future they hope will be more peaceful and settled than their past, but Plaatje and we know the horrors of dispossession and oppression that await them as the Boers settle the land, so it's hard to take the characters' hopefulness at face value.

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Feb 02, 2013 Meia rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first book we read for Modern African Literature and a good one! It can be read in one sitting, portrays the complexities of conflict within southern Africa even before the Dutch and British came, and is by a fascinating figure in literary history.

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Oct 06, 2009 Ashley rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, historical, 1700s-1800s

Honestly, I should probably give this more than two stars, seeing how it was the very first novel written by an African, but I just can't. It was pretty bad.

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Jul 11, 2008 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

First important novel in English by a black South African writer who was a founder of the organization that became the ANC; much more than just historically interesting

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Shelves: south-african

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Mar 18, 2013 Anne rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Mar 10, 2013 Gemquash rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, south-african, study-related

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About Sol T. Plaatje

Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was born near Boshof, Orange Free State (now Free State Province, South Africa). He received a mission-education at Pniel. When he outpaced fellow learners he was given additional private tuition by a missionary, Ernst Westphal, and his wife. In February 1892, aged 15, he became a pupil-teacher, a post he held for two years.
As an activist and politician he spent much of...more Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje was born near Boshof, Orange Free State (now Free State Province, South Africa). He received a mission-education at Pniel. When he outpaced fellow learners he was given additional private tuition by a missionary, Ernst Westphal, and his wife. In February 1892, aged 15, he became a pupil-teacher, a post he held for two years.
As an activist and politician he spent much of his life in the struggle for the enfranchisement and liberation of African people. He was a founder member and first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which would later become the African National Congress (ANC). As a member of an SANNC deputation he would travel to England to protest the 1913 Native Land Act, and later to Canada and the United States where he met Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. Du Bois.

While he grew up speaking the Tswana language, Plaatje would become a polyglot. Fluent in at least seven languages, he worked as a court interpreter during the Siege of Mafikeng, and translated works of William Shakespeare into Tswana. His talent for language would lead to a career in journalism and writing. He was editor and part-owner of Koranta ea Becoana (Bechuana Gazette) in Mafikeng, and in Kimberley Tsala ea Becoana (Bechuana Friend) and Tsala ea Batho (The Friend of the People). Plaatje was the first black South African to write a novel in English - Mhudi. Plaatje wrote the novel in 1919, but it was only published in 1930. In 1928 the Zulu writer R.R.R. Dhlomo published an English-language novel, entitled 'An African Tragedy', at the missionary Lovedale Press, in Alice. This makes Dhlomo's novel the first published black South African novel in English, even though Plaatje's 'Mhudi' had been written first. He also wrote[1] Native Life in South Africa, which Neil Parsons describes as "one of the most remarkable books on Africa by one of the continent's most remarkable writers";[2] and Boer War Diary that was first published 40 years after his death.
Plaatje was a committed Christian,[3] and organized a fellowship group called the Christian Brotherhood at Kimberley. He was married to Elizabeth Lilith M’belle, a union that would produce five children: Frederick, Halley, Richard, Violet and Olive. He died of pneumonia at Pimville, Johannesburg on 19 January 1932 and was buried in Kimberley.(less)

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