Dintšhontšho tsa bo-Juliuse Kesara is a translation into Setswana of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, by the renowned South African thinker, writer and linguist Sol T Plaatje, who was also a gifted stage actor. Plaatje first encountered the works of Shakespeare when he saw a performance of Hamlet as a young man; it ignited a great love in him for the works of the Elizabethan dramatist. Many years later he translated several of Shakespeare’s plays into Setswana in a series called Mabolelo a ga Tsikinya-Chaka (‘The Sayings of Shakespeare’.) Dintšhontšho tsa bo-Juliuse Kesara went to print five years after Plaatje’s death, in 1937.
His translations of Shakespeare’s plays into Setswana helped to pioneer and popularise a genre, the drama script, that was previously not well known in Southern Africa. It also showcased the rich range of Setswana vocabulary and served Plaatje’s aim of developing the language.
- ISBN10 1776140613
- ISBN13 9781776140619
- Publish Date 21 October 2021
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country ZA
- Imprint Wits University Press
- Format Paperback
- Pages 148
- Language tsn