The Mafeking Diary of Sol T. Plaatje

Sharp-sighted, witty, engaging, superbly written – Sol Plaatje’s diary provides a wonderfully readable view of the siege of Mafeking, one of the most famous episodes of the South African War.
Notable as the only diary of the war by a black South African to have survived, it provides a fascinating account of the part played by the African population of the town, as well as by Plaatje himself, in what was long regarded as ‘a white man’s war.
At the same time, it provides a keen insight into the mind and the memories of a man who went on to become one of South Africa’s most famous writers and a key spokesmen for black rights in the early part of the twentieth century. His Mafeking diary is now recognised as a landmark in South African literature.