This radio essay on writers from #South Africa & #Bloomsbury does a lot to place #SolPlaatje's wonderful book #Mhudi as a visionary and neglected novel (published late 20s, written by 1919) -- he was in London with the South African Native National Congress. It also explains that #Orlando was started after Woolf heard about Vita Sackville-West's affair with Mary Campbell -- and makes me want to read some William Plomer, whose books the Woolfs published. #modernism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Plaatje

Jade Munslow Ong (university of Salford) is on Radio 3 tonight -- on South African modernist writers' connections with London in 20s and 30s, including #SolPlaatje #SouthAfrica https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001khb6

Each year I aim to read more writing from Africa; mostly catching up. Here's a selection of 100 books from 2020, of which I have read #TsitsiDangarembga's Black and Female. The ones I caught up on were #OliveSchreiner - Undine, 1929 written 1870s, also Jade Munslow Ong's book on her; #ZoëWicomb - Stlll Life, 2020 (with this #MaryPrince - History of Mary Prince, 1831); Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - Petals of Blood, 1977; #SolPlaatje, Mhudi, 1930. #AfricanLiterature https://brittlepaper.com/100-notable-african-books-of-2022/