IN 1913, Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje, who described himself as a "South African Native," wrote to protest against what he considered a particularly irksome act of discrimination against his fellow Africans. His photograph, the reference given him by the Duke of Connaught, whose interpreter he had been, and a story about him in the Pretoria News, were included as his credentials. He was, in the words of the newspaper account,

no agitator or firebrand, no stirrer-up of bad feelings between black and white. He accepts the position which the Natives occupy today in the body politic as the natural result of their lack of education and civilization.'