KORANTA EA BECOANA : THE EARLY YEARS

From his boyhood, Plaatje was a keen observer of details and liked recounting events, speeches and performances, imitating presenters. When, as a young man, he was a post office messenger in Kimberley, he took a great interest in journalists. He was intrigued by the way they disseminate ideas and knowledge so widely through their papers, and by the way they can change people's perceptions through their writing. This interest was deepened when he met and got to know the war correspondents J Angus Hamilton of The Times, Major Baillie of the Morning Post, JE Neilly of the Pall Mall Gazette, Vere Stent of Reuters and EG Parslow of the Daily Chronicle, who all asked him to tell the war news from the perspective of the Barolong. All these things kindled and nurtured his desire to become a journalist and a writer.

At the end of the Anglo Boer War Plaatje tendered his resignation as a translator. He had been requested by Kgosana Silas Theleso Molema to become editor of his newspaper Koranta ea Becoana. Tawana Molema, the forefather of the Molema family, had been the light of the Barolong people since 1836 when they were still in Thaba Nchu. From there his descendants had become a beacon in the community by fanning the light of a fire which has since ignited. Silas, son of Tawana Molema, felt that the newspaper Koranta would further enlighten the Barolong and other Batswana, and to that end he earnestly requested Plaatje to assume the editorship.

At that time the newspaper Imvo, printed in King William's Town by Mr Tengo Jabavu, was one of the few newspapers for Africans published in English and isiXhosa. The newspaper was well known and read in the coastal areas. It was read and loved by all the Africans. It informed them about world affairs and the activities of the South African government and parliament. Imvo was the catalyst that inspired Molema and Plaatje to establish a newspaper that could do for the Batswana what Imvo was doing for the amaXhosa and amaFengu in King William's Town, East London, Queenstown, Grahamstown, Port Elizabeth and the Transkei. They hoped that the little ray of light cast by this paper might also do the same for Lesotho.