Two of South Africa’s most influential yet often overlooked historical figures, Sol Plaatje and Kgosi Luka Jantjie, will be celebrated at a landmark heritage concert in Kimberley this October.

Classics on Turf, in partnership with the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, will present the event at the Mittah Seperepere Convention Centre on Saturday 24 October. This builds on the momentum of the recent Tiyo Soga tribute in Johannesburg. Moreover, it positions the Northern Cape as a living archive of resistance, intellect and nation-building.

Keynote role

Prof. Yunus Ballim, inaugural vice-chancellor of the Sol Plaatje University (SPU) and emeritus professor at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), will deliver the keynote address.

Ballim’s connection to both honourees runs deep. As the university’s founding vice-chancellor, he championed the naming of its administrative building as Luka Jantjie House. This act formally honoured the resistance leader whose land was the first to be seized during the Kimberley diamond rush.

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His own contributions are recognised through Yunus Ballim Square, in the central courtyard of Luka Jantjie House.

Cultural reawakening

“There’s much more to this than just a concert,” says Vincent Zwelibanzi Mntamso, Patron of Classics on Turf.

“We are convening a moment of cultural reawakening. The stories of Kgosi Luka Jantjie and Sol Plaatje are not dusty footnotes. They are the living DNA of our nation’s resilience and intellect.”

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Mntamso says the concert continues the work begun with the Tiyo Soga tribute – an ongoing reflection on unsung heroes who helped build the nation.

“In partnership with the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, we are answering the call for an African Renaissance by returning to the source. This is about restoring and actively recovering our history, ensuring that the next generation knows the names, the struggles and the brilliance that shaped their world.”

Music as memory

The evening’s artistic direction is led by Maestro Kutlwano Masote He will conduct the Northern Cape Symphony Orchestra (NCSO) alongside guest artist Vusi Mahlasela. The Northern Cape Youth Choir, the Sol Plaatje University Choir and other local cultural groups will also perform.

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“Music is the most profound medium for memory,” says Masote.

“It goes beyond the intellect and speaks directly to the soul of a people. Our approach is to weave the sounds of the Northern Cape soil with the grandeur of a classical orchestra from Kimberley itself. We blend heritage-infused arrangements, dramatic readings and the voices of our youth.”

Two legacies

The programme honours Jantjie as a symbol of resistance and sovereignty. He was the first independent African ruler to lose his land to colonial forces. Additionally, his boycott of rural trading stores in the early 1890s was perhaps one of the earliest examples of non-violent resistance in colonial South Africa.

Plaatje is honoured as a giant of language, literature and early political organisation. He was a founding member of the South African Native National Congress, which later became the African National Congress (ANC). Moreover, he translated Shakespeare into Setswana and authored Native Life in South Africa.

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