A critical analysis of Sol Plaatjie's Sechuana proverbs with literal translations and their European equivalents

Abstract

This study aims to critically analyze Sol T. Plaatje's Sechuana Proverbs with Literal Translations And their European Equivalents. After analyzing the above-mentioned proverbs, it was discovered that Plaatje exposed white supremacy for what it was: greed, hypocrisy, and lack of feeling, insecurity, suspicion, self-interest, self-preservation, and more, using literary methods like as allusion as he collects and compiles Sechuana Proverbs, writes their literal English translations, and compares them with European equivalents. Firstly, this research argues that Sol Plaatje’s book is a call to Europeans/whites to move away from their superiority mentality and let go of their supremacy, as he finds parallels for these proverbs. He alludes that proverbs are similar irrespective of language because they use people, animals, celestial images, and natural phenomena. Secondly, this research opines that Sol Plaatje’s compulsion of Sechuana Proverbs was not to Europeanize Setswana proverbs with equivalents for social respectability, but rather to elaborate cultural similarities between Batswana and European ways of being and knowledge systems, and with literal translations, he intended to negotiate meanings of Setswana proverbs to expose white supremacy ironically. In conclusion, this study will adopt the following research approaches, qualitative research method and discourse analysis; and following theoretical approaches, Cultural Semiotics theory and Compiler-Author's intention theory.