MARRIAGE

In the winter of 1897, when Solomon Plaatje was still working in the post office, a young teacher from Burghersdorp, a small, dark-skinned woman named Elizabeth Lilith M'belle, came to visit her brother Isaiah. Isaiah M'belle, the translator at the high court of Kimberley, introduced Plaatje and Elizabeth. The girl spoke Setswana, Sesotho, isiXhosa, English and Dutch very well, just like Plaatje himself. The man was smitten with the young lady, and likewise the young lady with the man, and a bright flame of love was ignited. When the girl went home, letters flew between Kimberley and Burghersdorp, and during weekends the boy could not wait to visit her home town. It is said that the badger is suspicious about the honeycomb, and the M'belle parents noticed that there was something afoot and ruled that Elizabeth was not to visit Kimberley. She was put to work at home after school, and could not go out visiting, or go to town, or go for a walk. Even her letters went astray, and those from Kimberley were burned. Ah, but who can extinguish the flame of love or restrain people from loving one another? Amor vincit omnia! (love conquers all)!

In January 1898, the word spread in Kimberley that Plaatje and Elizabeth were married by ‘special licence’. It was a Wednesday when this took place, and by Saturday the union had been solemnised. The minister in Kimberley at that time, around the years 1897 and 1898, was Davidson Msikinya, a man well-liked by Africans. He called the church elders and lay preachers, and after praying he stood up and announced: ‘For the sake of time, and since the two people I present before you are civil servants, I will proceed without delay. I will now join them before you in holy matrimony. I pray for blessings on their marriage which is sanctioned by legal testament in the form of special licence, in accordance with the laws of Cape Colony and authorised yesterday by the magistrate. I ask God to bestow his blessing on this marriage, and now pronounce them man and wife.’

Not a soul listened to Pastor Msikinya's sermon. All eyes were fastened on this popular young gentleman, this light-skinned Morolong, dressed in his black trousers, well tailored black tailcoat and white shirt with a ruffle.