‘Ethnic Films’ for Ethnic Homelands: ‘Black Films’ and Separate Development in Apartheid South Africa, 1972–1979

Abstract

The'black film industry' was established in 1South Africa in the early 1970s following the introduction of a differential state subsidy for film production in African languages. This paper is a critical examination of some of the productions of this B-Scheme film subsidy. The'black films' analysed here are identified as those that fall in the ‘back to the homeland’ category. These films represent an urban/rural binary that reflects the apartheid government's preoccupation with spatial separateness, most notoriously in the policy of separate development in ethnic homelands or bantustans.

¹James Murray uses the term ‘ethnic cinema’ in his chapter ‘Ethnic Cinema: How Greed Killed the Industry’, in Blignaut, J. and Botha, M., eds, Movies, Moguls and Mavericks: South African Cinema 1979–1991 (Cape Town: Showdata, 1992).

Keywords:

• separate ethnic development
• Bantustans
• ‘black film industry’

Acknowledgements

This article has been drawn from G. Paleker, ‘Creating a “Black Film Industry”: State Intervention and Films for African Audiences in South Africa, 1956–1990’ (PhD Thesis, University of Cape Town, 2009). I am sincerely grateful to Sandra Swart for her support and for her constructive feedback on this article.

Notes

¹James Murray uses the term ‘ethnic cinema’ in his chapter ‘Ethnic Cinema: How Greed Killed the Industry’, in Blignaut, J. and Botha, M., eds, Movies, Moguls and Mavericks: South African Cinema 1979–1991 (Cape Town: Showdata, 1992).

²William Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 161.

³Keyan Tomaselli, The Cinema of Apartheid: Race and Class in South African Film (London: Routledge, 1989), 71–73.

⁴Keyan Tomaselli, The Cinema of Apartheid: Race and Class in South African Film (London: Routledge, 1989), 40.

⁵KAB 1/BUT 88, Letter from the Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner to all Commissioners in the Transkei Territories, dated 25 March 1963.

⁶KAB 1/BUT 88, Letter from the Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner to all Commissioners in the Transkei Territories, dated 25 March 1963.

⁷See Christopher Saunders and Nicholas Southey, A Dictionary of South African History (Cape Town, David Philip, 1998), 124 for a brief explanation of the Xhosa prophetess Nongqawuse.

⁸KAB 1/BUT 88, Letter from the Chief Bantu Affairs Commissioner to all Commissioners in the Transkei Territories, dated 25 March 1963.

⁹Interview with Antonie van der Merwe, Cape Town, 25 January 2006.

¹⁰Elaine Binedell, ‘Film and the State: Control, Ideology and Space’, (MA Thesis, University of KwaZulu Natal, 2001), 59.

¹¹Alan C.G. Best, ‘South Africa's Border Industries: The Tswana Example’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 61, 2 (June 1971), 1.

¹²Tomaselli, The Cinema, 59.

¹³ South African Film Weekly, 16, 23 (17 June 1977), 2.

¹⁴J.B. Peires, ‘The Implosion of Transkei and Ciskei’, African Affairs, 91 (1992), 367.

¹⁵Beinart, Twentieth Century South Africa, 208.

¹⁶See, for example, Rob Nixon, Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood: South African Culture and the World Beyond (New York and London: Routledge, 1994).

¹⁷Loren Kruger, ‘The Drama of Country and City: Tribalization, Urbanization and Theatre under Apartheid’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 23, 4 (December 1997), 569.

¹⁸Tomaselli, Twentieth Century South Africa, 71–73.

¹⁹It has not been possible to compile a complete list of ‘black films’ for many reasons, but mainly because there has been no written record kept of who produced what. Both Tomaselli in the Cinema of Apartheid and Blignaut and Botha in Movies, Moguls and Mavericks, have included a filmography but this is incomplete. It is possible that upwards of 500 films were produced through the B-Scheme subsidy.

²⁰Eschel Rhoodie, The Real Information Scandal (Pretoria: Orbis SA, 1983), 24.

²¹Mervyn Reese and Chris Day, Muldergate (Johannesburg: Macmillan Publishers, 1980), 190.

²²The impact of American films and the Americanisation of Africans was not unique to South Africa. See, for example, Charles Ambler, ‘Popular Films and Colonial Audiences: The Movies in Northern Rhodesia’, The American Historical Review, 106, 1 (2001), 81–105, as well as James Burns, ‘John Wayne on the Zambezi: Cinema, Empire and the American Western in British Central Africa’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 35, 1 (2002), 103–117.

²³The impact of American films and the Americanisation of Africans was not unique to South Africa. See, for example, Charles Ambler, ‘Popular Films and Colonial Audiences: The Movies in Northern Rhodesia’, The American Historical Review, 106, 1 (2001), 81–105, as well as James Burns, ‘John Wayne on the Zambezi: Cinema, Empire and the American Western in British Central Africa’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 35, 1 (2002), 190.

²⁴Interview with David Bensusan, Johannesburg, 21 April 2006.

²⁵D.S. Deane, Black South Africans: A Who's Who, 57 Profiles of Natal's Leading Blacks (Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 1978), 162

²⁶Reese and Day, Muldergate, 94.

²⁷Andre Pieterse who is based in Stellenbosch and is Chairman of Ma-Afrika Films refused to be interviewed but revealed that he has written the definitive history of the ‘black film industry’ which is in his library and not available for public scrutiny.

³⁰Interview with Thys Heyns and Paul Raleigh, Pretoria, 20 April 2007.

³¹Interview with Thys Heyns and Paul Raleigh, Pretoria, 20 April 2007.

²⁸Tomaselli, The Cinema, 67.

²⁹Interview with Thys Heyns and Paul Raleigh, Pretoria, 20 April 2007.

³² SA Film Weekly, 16, 26 (8 July 1977), 2–3.

³³Ronnie Isaacs was the other key role player in this industry, not only in production, but distribution and exhibition also. Attempts to locate and interview him had not been successful as his whereabouts are currently unknown. According to some informants he is based in the USA but occasionally works from SA.

³⁴Interview with Thys Heyns and Paul Raleigh.

³⁵ SA Film Weekly, 16, 26 (8 July 1977), 2.

³⁶ SA Film Weekly, 16, 26 (8 July 1977), 2.

³⁷See, for example, Isabel Balseiro's chapter, ‘Come Back, Africa: Black Claims on “White” Cities’, in Balseiro, I. and Masilela, N. eds, To Change Reels: Film and Film Culture in South Africa (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003).

³⁸Harriet Gavshon, ‘Levels of Intervention in Films made for African Audiences in South Africa’, in Critical Arts, 2, 4 (1983), 16.

³⁹Harriet Gavshon, ‘Levels of Intervention in Films made for African Audiences in South Africa’, in Critical Arts, 2, 4 (1983), 17.

⁴⁰Harriet Gavshon, ‘Levels of Intervention in Films made for African Audiences in South Africa’, in Critical Arts, 2, 4 (1983), 17.

⁴¹Gary Baines, ‘Representing the Apartheid City: South African Cinema in the 1950s and Jamie Uys’ The Urgent Queue’, in Shiel, M. and Fiztmaurice, T., eds, Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 186.

⁴² SA Film Weekly, 14, 40 (12 December 1975), 2.

⁴³ SA Film Weekly, 16, 33 (2 September, 1977), 6.

⁴⁴ SA Film Weekly, 16, 33, 14, 40 (12 December 1975), 2.

⁴⁵Interview with Thys Heyns and Paul Raleigh.

⁴⁶One uses the term ‘cultural authenticity’ guardedly, knowing the anthropological minefield associated with it, but what is meant here is simply that being African, individuals such as Sabela would have had a greater understanding and knowledge of African cultures and would therefore have used cultural symbols based on this insider knowledge and understanding in ways that would be different from those used by non-African film-makers.

⁴⁷Keyan Tomaselli, The Cinema of Apartheid, 67.

⁴⁸D.S. Deane, Black South, 160–162.

⁴⁹D.S. Deane, Black South, 162.

⁵⁰D.S. Deane, Black South.

⁵¹Liz Gunner, ‘Wrestling with the Present, Beckoning to the Past: Contemporary Zulu Radio Drama’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 26, 2 (June 2000), 227.

⁵²Liz Gunner, ‘Wrestling with the Present, Beckoning to the Past: Contemporary Zulu Radio Drama’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 26, 2 (June 2000), 5.

⁵³Charles Hamm, ‘“The Constant Companion of Man”: Separate Development, Radio Bantu and Music’, Popular Music, 10, 2 (May 1991), 149.

⁵⁴Charles Hamm, ‘“The Constant Companion of Man”: Separate Development, Radio Bantu and Music’, Popular Music, 10, 2 (May 1991), 150.

⁵⁵Charles Hamm, ‘“The Constant Companion of Man”: Separate Development, Radio Bantu and Music’, Popular Music, 10, 2 (May 1991). 150.

⁵⁶Charles Hamm, ‘“The Constant Companion of Man”: Separate Development, Radio Bantu and Music’, Popular Music, 10, 2 (May 1991), 153.

⁵⁷Cited in Liz Gunner, ‘Wrestling with the Present’, 224.

⁵⁸Cited in ibid.

⁵⁹See also Tomaselli, The Cinema, for a fuller history of broadcasting in South Africa.

⁶⁰Liz Gunner, ‘Supping with the Devil: Radio Zulu Drama under Apartheid: The Case of Alexius Buthelezi’, Social Identities, 11, 2 (March 2005), 162.

⁶¹Liz Gunner, ‘Supping with the Devil: Radio Zulu Drama under Apartheid: The Case of Alexius Buthelezi’, Social Identities, 11, 2 (March 2005).

⁶²See, for example, and Carol Traynor Williams, ‘It's Time for my Story’: Soap Opera Sources, Structure and Response (Westport: Praeger, 1992).

⁶³K. Tomaselli, ‘Ideology and Cultural Production in South African Cinema’ (PhD Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1983), 454.

⁶⁴M. Leveson, People of the Book: Images of the Jew in South African English Fiction 1880–1992 (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2001), xi.

⁶⁵M. Leveson, People of the Book: Images of the Jew in South African English Fiction 1880–1992 (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2001), 16.

⁶⁶J. Kane-Berman, Soweto: Black Revolt, White Reaction (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1978) 7.

⁶⁷The distinction between a sangoma and witchdoctor, as I was informed at a colloquim organised by the Centre for African languages of the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, is that the former is a healer and therefore someone good and virtuous, whereas the latter is evil.

⁶⁸Unlike the other Heyns Films, this film has no director credits or clear production/release date, though there are other credits such as actors, camera, sound, and, of course, produced by Heyns Films.

⁶⁹V. Bickford-Smith, ‘How Urban South African Life was Represented in Film and Films Consumed in South African Cities in the 1950s’, Journal of the Interdisciplinary Crossroads, 3, 2 (2006), 438.