Words or blows? B.B. Mdledle’s isiXhosa translation of Julius Caesar (1956)

B.B. Mdledle translated three of Shakespeare's plays into isiXhosa. This article focuses on one of these, his uJulius Caesar (1956), and considers the context in which it was produced. Readers would be justified in assuming that Mdledle's translation implies opposition to apartheid policies; at the same time, it could be viewed as a warning about the consequences of violent revolution against an oppressive regime. Mdledle's own political position during this period was ambiguous. Having been an active critic of the lack of black representation in South Africa's government from the 1930s to the 1950s, he would subsequently join the cabinet of Kaiser Matanzima, the Chief Minister of the "Homeland" of Transkei – placing him in a compromised position. Younger contemporaries, such as Can Themba, put Shakespeare to different uses in their literary activity (including, in Themba's case, satirising Transkei politicians using Julius Caesar). The article thus explores the politics of South Africa and the Transkei, as well as the enigmatic Mdledle himself, in its analysis of uJulius Caesar.