Welcome to the Sol Plaatje Archive - the home of Shakespeare in African Languages!
This Omeka-hosted archive is a project of the Tsikinya-Chaka Centre, a research unit at the University of the Witwatersrand.
It is supported by the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa, the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) and the Programme for African Digital Humanities (Afridig).
The image on the left is an endonymic map of Africa (produced by Jordan Engel for The Decolonial Atlas). It challenges us to think about African languages without the national boundaries that are legacies of the continent's colonial history - and it is a useful image to keep in mind while you are using this archive, which is structured by country even though Africa's languages cross borders.
You can click on the menu icon next to the search bar to bring up a list of countries and languages from which to choose. Texts are generally (but not always) categorised according to the country in which they were published.
Alternatively, you can search by author/translator, title/play, language, country, date, place of publication or any other search term. Or just browse through the texts below! (They are alphabetised by title.)
Browse
-
Dintshontsho tsa bo-Juliuse Kesara [Setswana]
A digital copy of Sol Plaatje's Dintshontsho tsa bo-Juliuse Kesara (1937) -
Diphosho-Phosho [Setswana]
A digitised copy of Sol Plaatje's Diphosho-Phosho (1930) -
Iwi ere ti Julius Caesar [Yoruba]
A digital copy of E.T. Johnson's Iwi ere ti Julius Caesar (c.1930) -
Julius Caesar [Xitsonga]
A digital copy of Samuel Jonas Baloyi's Julius Caesar (1964) -
Julius Caesar [Xitsonga]
A digitised copy of Samuel Jonas Baloyi's Julius Caesar (1958), revised by Charlotte Nkondo (1973) -
Julius Caesar / Iliusa Mukeesari [Ndonga]
A digital copy of Hans D. Namuhuja's Julius Caesar / Iliusa Mukeesari (1981) -
Kgosi Henry wa Bone [Setswana]
A digitised copy of M.O.M. Seboni's Kgosi Henry wa Bone (1952) -
Koning Lear [Afrikaans]
A digitised copy of Uys Krige's Koning Lear (1971) -
Makhaula-mbilu a Julius Caesar [Tshivenda]
A digitised copy of Mphaya Nemudzivhadi's Makhaula-mbilu a Julius Caesar (c.1970) -
Midsomernagdroom [Afrikaans]
A digitised copy of Eitemal's Midsomernagdroom (1974) -
Mogwebi wa Venisi [Sepedi]
A digital copy of C.N.M. Phatudi's Mogwebi wa Venisi (1985) -
Morekisi wa Venisi [Setswana]
A digital copy of M.O.M. Seboni's Morekisi wa Venisi (1961) -
Richard III [Afrikaans]
A digitised copy of Andre P. Brink's Richard III (1969) -
Romeo en Juliet [Afrikaans]
A digitised copy of Andre P. Brink's Romeo en Juliet (1975) -
Sonnette van Shakespeare [Afrikaans]
E-book of Deryck Uys' Sonnette van Shakespeare (2013) -
Titus Andronicus [Afrikaans]
A digitised copy of Breyten Breytenbach's Titus Andronicus (1970) -
Ubusuku beshum’ elinambini [isiXhosa]
A digitised copy of B.B. Mdledle's Ubusuku beshum’ elinambini (1960) -
uJulius Caesar [isiXhosa]
A digitised copy of B.B. Mdledle's uJulius Caesar (1956) -
uMacbeth [isiXhosa]
A digitised copy of B.B. Mdledle's uMacbeth (1959) -
uSiza [isiZulu]
Sabatha Ngcobo's uSiza, extracted from the e-anthology Ezombelebele (2019)