Liminality and alternative femininity in Sol T. Plaatje’s Mhudi

Abstract

Sol T. Plaatje’s novel, Mhudi, has been lauded by many critics as a “feminist” text. However, a recent article by Shannon Young and Tom Henthorne reads Mhudi as less of a proto-feminist account of a woman’s subversive femininity and more of a mockery of both Mhudi’s subversiveness and her husband’s lack of “manliness.” In order to respond to the contradictions that emerge from these contrasting readings, I turn to Plaatje’s own writings, in particular Native Life in South Africa and an extract from Koranta ea Becoana, one of the newspapers he wrote and edited. Within Plaatje’s writings, there emerges a somewhat contradictory stance on women’s rights. While he clearly advocates women’s inclusion in the public sphere, he also maintains certain problematic views on their ideal place and role. Furthermore, these writings reveal Plaatje’s understanding of the importance of social context – in terms of both the audience he is addressing and how this affects the necessity of women’s inclusion in spaces previously denied to them. In Mhudi, as I will demonstrate, social context plays a vital role in determining the extent to which and the ways in which the character of Mhudi can enact a subversive femininity.

Keywords: Sol Plaatje, Mhudi, feminism, liminality, utopia, South Africa