Mhudi

{{short description|1930 novel by Sol Plaatje}}

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Mhudi: An Epic of South African Native Life a Hundred Years Ago is a South African novel by Sol Plaatje, first published in 1930. The novel has been republished many times, including in the influential Heinemann African Writers Series.

The novel is a political historical novel which explores the development of the Traansval kingdom, led by Matabeleland.{{Cite journal| issn = 0376-8902| volume = 24| issue = 1| pages = 37–58| last = Chennells| first = Anthony| title = Plotting South African History: Narrative in Sol Plaatje's "Mhudi"| journal = English in Africa| date = 1997-05-01| jstor = 40238835}} The novel was originally finished in 1920, but Plaatje was unable to get the novel published.{{Cite book| publisher = Duke University Press| isbn = 978-0822329985| last = Sanders| first = Mark| title = Complicities: The Intellectual and Apartheid| date = 2002-12-25| section =Sol T Plaatje:The Essential Interpreter| pages= 40–60}} R. R. R. Dhlomo's novella An African Tragedy (1928) consequently preceded it in publication. The novel re-envisions the standard Eurocentric narrative of history, which supported Apartheid and its racist infrastructure.

Plaatje described the novel as a romance, comparing it to the Zulu novels of H. Rider Haggard.