The Museum is proud to share this Virtual Tour of the Sol Plaatje Hall. This is the start of a long-term project to create a complete virtual tour of the Museum. The project will proceed in stages, with the Sol Plaatje Virtual Tour as Stage 1.
Sol Plaatje was an interpreter for the court during the Siege of Mafeking. His diary of that period is considered to be one of the most important documents relating to the experiences of the black South Africans in the Anglo-Boer War. In 1912 he was a founding member of the South African Native National Congress, later known as the African National Congress (ANC) and in the 1930’s became the leader of the organisation.
This hall is dedicated to the black and coloured people that were involved in the war in their various capacities on both British and Boer sides. The scorched earth tactics resulted in the total destruction of farms and large numbers of black people were accommodated in labour camps and black concentration camps. The death toll in these camps was in excess of 24 000.
Scale models of the black concentration camp at Dry Harts.
