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Abstract
South African historians have largely overlooked the night as a frame of historical analysis. This article is an initial attempt to rectify this by exploring Drum as a source for this endeavour. Drum provides insight into the South African night in the 1950s as both a symbol and experience, predominantly as it was understood and encountered by black South Africans. At this time curfew legislation and the intentional lack of lighting infrastructure provided to black urban areas sought to circumscribe black people’s nighttime activity. The apartheid state’s racial ideology cast black people as fundamentally rural and cut off from modernity, solely allowed in the city to provide labour. In this imagination, black people were seen as city people by day only, and should disappear at night to sleep. Nevertheless, Drum’s predominantly black writers positioned the night as a key site of their reporting and short stories, the site of ‘real life’, depicting a vibrant black urban nightlife. Consequently, Drum offers a catalogue of urban black South Africans’ nighttime activity, occurring despite curfew legislation. In this, Drum challenged the state’s prescribed temporality, insisting on black people’s modernity and urban identity, imaged through their engagement in a life by night. However, Drum juxtaposed its descriptions of this vibrant night with reporting and depictions of nighttime crime predominantly located in African neighbourhoods, challenging the government’s infrastructural neglect that was held to be responsible for the danger of these areas at night. Further, in writing about black urban nightlife, in South Africa and abroad, Drum allowed its predominantly black readers to vicariously experience nighttime activity, facilitating the evasion of the curfew’s curbs on mobility. Here, Drum drew its readers, and placed black South Africa generally, into a globally imagined project of black urban modernity, represented, expressed and experienced through the night. Thus, in their struggle over the night in the 1950s, black South Africans and the apartheid state struggled over black modernity itself.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr Ruth Watson for her generous support and assistance throughout the writing of this article. Additionally, I would like to thank Cambridge University Library for allowing me access to their Drum collection, and Bailey’s African History Archive and Africa Media Online for providing the photographs for publication. Thank you also to Liam Michael Plimmer and Mark Fleishman, who acted as readers and sounding boards during the writing process.
Notes
1 See, for example, T. Matshikiza, ‘Talking Trumpet: Elijah Nkwanyana’, Drum, August 1953, pp. 44–5; T. Matshikiza, ‘Disc-ussing’, Drum, August 1953, p. 45; T. Matshikiza, ‘Disc-ussing’, Drum, March 1954; T. Matshikiza, ‘What They Say about Dolly’, Drum, October 1954, pp. 15–17; T. Matshikiza, ‘Gramo Go Round’, Drum, May 1955, p. 73; T. Matshikiza, ‘Gramo Go Round’, Drum, December 1955, p. 79; T. Matshikiza, ‘Shantytown in City Hall!’, Drum, August 1956, pp. 17–20; B. Modisane, ‘Disc Time’, Drum, July 1958, p. 81; B. Modisane, ‘Disc Time’, Drum, August 1958, p. 83; B. Modisane, ‘Disc Time’, Drum, February 1959, p. 79; B. Dyantyi, ‘Dollar Brand’, Drum, December 1959, pp. 26–9. Access to these and all Drum articles cited in this article was provided through Cambridge University Libraries.
2 National Archives and Records Service of South Africa, NTS (Secretary of Native Affairs), 1949–1958, 4546, 866/313, ‘Curfew’; N. Nakasa, ‘Criminals Without Crime’, Drum, April 1959, p. 25; E. Mphahlele, Down Second Avenue (London, Faber and Faber, 1959), p. 45.
3 G. Magwaza, ‘Talk o’ the Rand’, Drum, September 1956, p. 15; A. Sampson, Drum: A Venture into the New Africa (Collins, London, 1956), p. 33.
4 T. Huddleston, Naught for your Comfort (London, Collins, 1956), pp. 51–2; C. Guldimann, ‘“A Symbol of the New African”: Drum Magazine, Popular Culture and the Formation of Black Urban Subjectivity in 1950s South Africa’ (PhD thesis, Queen Mary University of London, 2003), pp. 7, 53–4.
5 M. Beaumont, Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London (London, Verso, 2015), pp. 41–2.
6 M. Chapman, The Drum Decade: Stories from the 1950s (Pietermaritzburg, University of Natal Press, 1989), p. 194.
7 Ibid., pp. vii–viii; 186–7; Guldimann, ‘A Symbol of the New African’, pp. 6–7, 184, 283–4; P. Gready, ‘The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties: The Unreal Reality of their World’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 16, 1 (1990), pp. 144–6; D. Driver, ‘Drum Magazine (1951–59) and the Spatial Configurations of Gender’, in K. Darian-Smith, L. Gunner and S. Nuttall (eds), Text, Theory, Space: Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia (London, Routledge, 1996), pp. 231–42; R. Johnson, ‘“The Girl About Town”: Discussions of Modernity and Female Youth in Drum Magazine, 1951–1970’, Social Dynamics, 35, 1 (2009), pp. 36–50.
8 D. Maughan-Brown, ‘The Anthology as Reliquary?’, Current Writing, 1, 1 (1989), p. 12.
9 Gready, ‘The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties’, pp. 141, 148.
10 D. Goodhew, ‘Working-Class Respectability: The Example of the Western Areas of Johannesburg, 1930–55’, Journal of African History, 41 (2000), pp. 241–66; L.M. Thomas, ‘The Modern Girl and Racial Respectability in 1930s South Africa’, Journal of African History, 47, 3 (2006), p. 467.
11 Goodhew, ‘Working-Class Respectability’.
12 Driver, ‘Drum Magazine (1951–59)’, pp. 231, 238; Guldimann, ‘A Symbol of the New African’, pp. 275–7; Johnson, ‘The Girl About Town’.
13 Sampson, Drum, p. 30.
14 Johnson, ‘The Girl About Town’, p. 42.
15 C. Themba, ‘Dolly and Her Men’, Drum, January 1957, pp. 37–45.
16 B. Modisane, Blame Me on History (London, Thames and Hudson, 1963), pp. 147–8, 275, 279; L. Nkosi, Home and Exile (London, Longmans, 1965), p. 11; Gready, ‘The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties’, pp. 144, 151. Yellow referred to ‘yellow press’, a description of print media that published poorly researched news, attempting to increase sales by substituting substance for scandal.
17 Sampson, Drum, pp. 15–32; Chapman, The Drum Decade, pp. 186–94; Guldimann, ‘A Symbol of the New African’, pp. 45–7; Gready, ‘The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties’, pp. 143–4.
18 P. Geschiere, B. Meyer and P. Pels, ‘Introduction’, in P. Geschiere, B. Meyer and P. Pels (eds), Readings in Modernity in Africa (Oxford, James Currey, 2008), pp. 1–3; H. Lefebvre, Introduction to Modernity, trans. J. Moore (London and New York, NY, Verso, 1995), pp. 178–81, 185; D. Attwell, Rewriting Modernity: Studies in Black South African Literary History (Athens, Ohio University Press, 2006), pp. 3-4, 22–3.
19 E. Hunter, ‘Modernity, Print Media, and the Middle Class in Colonial East Africa’, in C. Dejung, D. Motadel and J. Osterhammel (eds), The Global Bourgeoisie: The Rise of the Middle Classes in the Age of Empire (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2019), pp. 111–12; 117–18.
20 Drum, September 1954, p. 15; ‘Blackest Magic’, Drum, September 1956, pp. 43–51; Drum, February 1959, p. 69; Drum, December 1961, p. 82; Nkosi, Home and Exile, p. 10.
21 W. Straw, ‘Gathering up the Social: Nightlife Columns in the African-American Press’, Ethnologies, 44, 1 (2022), pp. 41–59.
22 ‘Negro Notes from U.S.A.’, Drum, October 1951, p. 10.
23 ‘Negro Notes from U.S.A.’, Drum, November 1951, p. 13; ‘Negro Notes from U.S.A.’, Drum, February 1952, p. 11; ‘At the Dance Hall’, Drum, September 1958, p. 39; ‘Meet Me at the Sugar Hill’, Drum, May 1953, p. 25.
24 Drum, June 1958, p. 50; see also Drum, August 1958, p. 80; Drum, March 1959, p. 7.
25 Sampson, Drum, p. 20.
26 N.S. Ndebele, ‘The Rediscovery of the Ordinary: Some New Writings in South Africa’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 12, 2 (1986), pp. 144–50, 156.
27 For some examples see, ‘Inside Johannesburg’s Underworld’, Drum, October 1951, p. 6; ‘High Life in Cape Town’, Drum, May 1952, pp. 20–1; ‘Shebeens I have Known’, Drum, November 1952, pp. 6–7; ‘The History of “Defiance”’, Drum, October 1952, pp. 12–15; J.A. Maimane, ‘Will He Beat Jake?’, Drum, May 1953 pp. 28–9; ‘Not too Late to Learn’, Drum, June 1953, pp. 24–5; ‘Gipsy Opera Storms Cape’, Drum, October 1953, pp. 36–7; J.A. Maimane, ‘Boxing goes to the Dance’, Drum, August 1955, pp. 22–3; C. Themba, ‘Let the People Drink’, March Drum, March 1956, pp. 53–7; ‘Cape Moffie Drag’, Drum, January 1959, pp. 60–1; ‘Smash-Hit’, Drum, March 1959, pp. 24–7; G.R. Naidoo, ‘Murder at Midnight’, Drum, April 1959, pp. 68–71; M. Morel, ‘Girl about Town’, Drum, June 1959, pp. 19–21; ‘Phata Phata’, Drum, January 1960, p. 33.
28 E. Mphahlele, ‘Blind Alley’, Drum, September 1953, pp. 32–4; C. Themba, ‘The Nice Time Girl’, Drum, May 1954, n.p.; D. Ngcobo, ‘Never Too Late for Love!’, Drum (West African), September 1954, n.p.; M. Manqupu, ‘Love Comes Deadly’, Drum, January 1955, pp. 40–1, 51; B. Dlodlo, ‘Kickido’, Drum, October 1956, pp. 47–51; A. Mogale, ‘Crime for Sale’, Drum, January 1953, pp. 32–3.
29 M. Chapman, ‘Can Themba, Storyteller and Journalist of the 1950s’, English in Africa, 16, 2 (1989), p. 27; ‘Mr Drum’s Letter’, Drum, October 1956, p. 6.
30 ‘Masterpiece in Bronze: Isaac Makau’, Drum, November 1955, p. 61.
31 C. Themba, ‘Talk on the Rand: Loiterers Galore’, Drum, April 1958, p. 17.
32 Themba, ‘Let the People Drink’, pp. 53–7.
33 Gready, ‘The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties’, p. 145. For an example, see, C. Motsisi, ‘On the Beat’, Drum, July 1958, p. 75.
34 Nkosi, Home and Exile, p. 15.
35 ‘Speak up, Man!’, Drum, December 1959, pp. 72–3.
36 ‘£50 Winner of Short Story Contest’, Drum, April 1953, p. 21.
37 Manqupu, ‘Love Comes Deadly’, p. 40.
38 S. Samkange, ‘Mr Drum Visits Harlem’, Drum, March 1958, p. 21.
39 M. Samuelson, ‘The Urban Palimpsest: Re‐Presenting Sophiatown’, Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 44, 1 (2008), pp. 65–6.
40 Driver, ‘Drum Magazine (1951–59), pp. 231–42; Johnson, ‘The Girl About Town’.
41 Themba, ‘Let the People Drink’, p. 54.
42 For example, see Manqupu, ‘Love Comes Deadly’, p. 41; Themba, ‘The Nice Time Girl’; Dlodlo, ‘Kickido’; F. Hawkins, ‘Too Late to Love!’, Drum, October 1955, pp. 46–51; C. Themba, ‘Marta’, Drum, July 1956, pp. 41–5; C. Themba, ‘Dolly’, Drum, March 1957, pp. 59–63.
43 For example, Themba, ‘Dolly and her Men’; Matshikiza, ‘What They Say about Dolly’, pp. 15–17; ‘Drum Picture Gallery: Miss Dolly Rathebe’, Drum, March 1956, pp. 40–1.
44 C. Motsisi, ‘On the Beat’, Drum, March 1959, p. 56; C. Motsisi, ‘On the Beat’, Drum, May 1959, p. 59; Dlodlo, ‘Kickido’.
45 Driver, ‘Drum Magazine (1951–59), p. 238; Johnson, ‘The Girl About Town’, p. 39.
46 Manqupu, ‘Love Comes Deadly’, p. 41.
47 ‘Durban Exposed: City with Two Faces’, Drum, July 1952, pp. 13–17.
48 ‘Clean up the Reef’, Drum, March 1953, pp. 11–13; ‘MR DRUM’S LETTER’, Drum, October 1957, p. 6; G. Magwaza, ‘‘Talk o’ the Town’, Drum, September 1958, p. 15; ‘Organised Gangsterism’, Drum, December 1955, p. 33; Gready, ‘The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties’, p. 154.
49 Manqupu, ‘Love Comes Deadly’, p. 40; ‘Organised Gangsterism’, p. 33; ‘Terror Township’, Drum, May 1953, pp. 39–41; ‘Alexandra’s Terror’, Drum, August 1955, pp. 59–61; ‘Death in the Dark City’, Drum, April 1956, p. 27.
50 ‘The Globe Gang’, Drum, April 1954, n.p.; for other examples, see ‘Terror Township’ and ‘Organised Gangsterism’, pp. 29–33.
51 ‘The Torch Gang’, Drum, April 1955, p. 29.
52 ‘Terror in the Trains!’, Drum, October 1957, p. 24.
53 Ibid., p. 22.
54 Drum, November 1956, p. 26.
55 Drum, December 1956, p. 18.
56 ‘MR DRUM’S LETTER’, Drum, October 1957, p. 6.
57 Magwaza, ‘Talk o’ the Town’, p. 15.
58 Morel, ‘Girl about Town’, p. 21.
59 C. Themba, ‘Crepuscule’, in D. Stuart and R. Holland (eds), The Will to Die (London, Heinemann, 1972), p. 5.
60 Gready, ‘The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties’, p. 140.
61 ‘Those Gay Cape Parties’, Drum, October 1960, p. 47.
62 For the concept of ‘publics’, see K. Barber, The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics: Oral and Written Culture in Africa and Beyond (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 139.
63 ‘MR DRUM’S LETTER’, Drum, September 1958, p. 6.
64 R. Bridges, ‘Exploration and Travel outside Europe (1720–1914)’, in P. Hulme and T. Youngs (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 53.
65 Ibid., pp. 53–69; M.L. Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (New York and London, Routledge, 1992).
66 R. Jones, At the Crossroads: Nigerian Travel Writing and Literary Culture in Yoruba and English (Woodbridge, Boydell and Brewer, 2019). pp. 2, 7–8.
67 Ibid., pp. 58, 78–85, 88–90.
68 For example, see T. Matshikiza, ‘Shantytown in City Hall’, Drum, August 1956, pp. 17–18.
69 ‘Clean up the Reef’, p. 13. See also ‘Durban Exposed’ and ‘The Globe Gang’.
70 Themba, ‘Let the People Drink’, pp. 53–7; Chapman, ‘Can Themba, Storyteller and Journalist of the 1950s’, p. 24.
71 For example, see Maimane, ‘Will He Beat Jake?’, pp. 28–9; Morel, ‘Girl about Town’, pp. 19-21.
72 S. David, ‘Popular Culture in South Africa: The Limits of Black Identity in Drum Magazine’ (PhD thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2000), p. 67.
73 For examples, see T. Matshikiza, ‘Gramo Go Round’, Drum, May 1955, p. 73; B. Modisane, ‘Disc Time’, Drum, September 1958, p. 81.
74 ‘Write to Drum’, Drum, February 1956, pp. 11–13; ‘Write to Drum’, Drum, April 1956, p. 11; ‘Write to Drum’, Drum, December 1957, p. 11; ‘Speak up, Man’, Drum, May 1958, p. 10; ‘Speak up, Man’, Drum, January 1959, p. 13; ‘Speak up, Man’, Drum, February 1959, p. 11; ‘Speak up, Man’, Drum, March 1959, p. 13.
75 ‘Letters to the Editor’, Drum, August 1953, p. 42.
76 R. Nixon, ‘The Devil in the Black Box: Ethnic Nationalism, Cultural Imperialism, and the Outlawing of TV Under Apartheid’, The Societies of Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th Century, Collected Seminar Papers, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, 45 (1993), pp. 120–37.
77 ‘Write to Drum’, Drum, November 1954, pp. 6, 12.
78 ‘Write to Drum!’, Drum, March 1957, p. 11; ‘Write to Drum’, Drum, February 1954, n.p.; ‘Write to Drum!’, Drum, January 1955, p. 9.
79 For examples, see ‘Go! Go! Go! “Big Jay” Sends Jazz Fans Crazy!’, Drum, May 1953, pp. 17–19; ‘Negro Shows Sweep the World’, Drum, August 1953, pp. 6–7; ‘All Aboard the Jazz Train’, Drum, September 1955, pp. 42–3; ‘Masterpiece in Bronze: Rock ‘Em Hampton’, Drum, March 1957, pp. 37–9; ‘How Patterson Put Ingo on Ice’, Drum, August 1959, pp. 32–3; ‘Miriam in New York’, Drum, April 1960, pp. 26–7.
80 ‘Meet Me at the Sugar Hill’, p. 25.
81 ‘It’s the Newest Craze’, Drum, June 1958, p. 51; ‘At the Dance Hall’, p. 39.
82 Samkange, ‘Mr Drum Visits Harlem’, p. 21.
83 Ibid.
84 ‘Speak up, Man!’, Drum, April 1958, p. 9.
85 ‘Pen Pal Club’, Drum, December 1951, p. 39; ‘Write to Drum’, Drum, February 1955, p. 6; ‘Pen Pal Pix’, Drum, June 1958, p. 81; ‘Pen Pal Pix’, Drum, September 1959, p. 91; ‘Speak up, Man!’, Drum, July 1958, p. 13; ‘Speak up, Man!’, Drum, September 1958, p. 13; ‘Speak up, Man!’, Drum, August 1959, pp. 87–9; ‘Speak up, Man!’, Drum, October 1959, p. 85.
86 ‘At the Dance Hall’, p. 39.
87 Guldimann, ‘A Symbol of the New African’; U. Hannerz, ‘Sophiatown: The View from Afar’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 20, 2 (1994), pp. 181–93; T. Odhiambo, ‘Inventing Africa in the Twentieth Century: Cultural Imagination, Politics and Transnationalism in Drum Magazine’, African Studies, 65, 2 (2006), pp. 157–74; M. Fenwick, ‘“Tough Guy, Eh?”: The Gangster‐Figure in Drum’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 22, 4 (1996), pp. 617–32; R. Nixon, Homelands Harlem and Hollywood: South African Culture and the World Beyond (London and New York, Routledge, 1994).
88 ‘Speak up Man!’, Drum, July 1958, p. 11.
89 Guldimann, ‘A Symbol of the New African’, p. 5.
90 ‘MR DRUM’S LETTER’, Drum, April 1958, p. 6.
91 E. Mphahlele, The African Image (London, Faber and Faber, 1962), p. 192.