Sounding the Cape

Front matter

Music, Identity and Politics in South Africa

Music, Identity and Politics in

South Africa

CHAPTER SIX Illustrations 411

Musicians Interviewed in 2007 and 2009 412 Index 413

Prelude

THIs BOOK Is the outcome of a project that began to take shape through conversations with Professor Simon Bekker (Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Stellenbosch), in the course of which he suggested that I submit a research proposal to the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study (STIAS). I then discussed the idea with Professor Bernard Lategan, the then director of STIAS. We agreed that the project would try and combine my interests in the analysis of group identities and in the sociology of music. I wrote a proposal entitled “Urban Music and Identities: A Case Study of Cape Town’, which was approved by the STIAS Research Committee, and I was invited to come and spend ten weeks at STIAS.

During my stay in Stellenbosch, from 17 September to 1 December 2007, I conducted a series of semi-directive interviews on the relationship musicians entertained with Cape Town, the city and its surroundings; I also collected as much printed information and as many recordings as possible. Musicians included in the sample represented most of the musical genres that were actually performed in Cape Town in 2007. When asked what, in their opinion, made Cape Town’s musics special, nearly all the musicians interviewed agreed on two characteristics: a history of mixture, and the ghoema beat. In order to be analysed, the findings of the musicians’ survey had to be set against a double background: first a theoretical background which would treat mixture as an effect of creolisation dynamics that developed at the Cape after the arrival of the first European settlers in 1652, and which would consider creole musics (including genres based on the ghoema beat) invented in South Africa within a general framework assessing the role of music in identity configurations; then, a historical background which would illustrate the development of Cape Town's musics and ascertain their quality as creole (creolised and creolising) musics, highlighting connections and interactions between people who were ascribed separate identities. Finally, after reading several reports published by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), I realised that it was necessary to engage with the apparent contradiction between what the history of music and the perceptions of musicians reveal about exchanges and blending that occurred at all times in the history of the Cape, and the findings of successive JR Barometer surveys that bring to the forefront the relative isolation in which South Africans previously classified in different groups still live.

viii Prelude

The book consequently begins with two chapters respectively dealing with the role and place of music in identity configurations, and with theories of creolisation and their relevance to South Africa. The following three chapters offer an outline of the history of Cape Town’s music. They do not claim to provide a comprehensive history, but endeavour to illustrate as precisely as possible the works of creolisation in music. I have attempted to describe musical genres and styles in the most neutral manner — in line with the imperative of axiological neutrality advocated by Max Weber (Weber 1958) — and the descriptions are not meant to carry any value judgement on the music itself but to capture its social signification. The three historical chapters focus on Cape Town but, when necessary, also delve into the history of music in the rest of South Africa. Cape Town was the first outpost of creolisation in South Africa. Cape Town’s musics played a decisive role in shaping popular music that spread throughout the whole country in the 20° century. Consequently, it is often difficult to disentangle what is specifically of Cape Town and what is more generally South African. At any rate, such disentanglement should only be attempted for the sake of conducting a case study of Cape Town, and without losing sight of the permanent mutual influences that interlocked Capetonian and South African musics. Cape Town appears, in this perspective, not as an exceptional case in South Africa, but rather as a prototype. The history of colonial and post-colonial South Africa started at the Cape. What unfolded there, especially in terms of musical invention, impacted deeply on the rest of South Africa. The role and place of music in the development of Cape Town’s society is just one example of trends that affected the whole country.

Following the three historical chapters, I carry out an analysis of the interviews conducted with Capetonian musicians in 2007, before the conclusion presents a few suggestions regarding the place music should be granted in education and cultural policies given the divisions that still characterise South Africa in the 21* century.

When writing this book, I have been confronted with terminological and typographical questions — as have most authors dealing with South Africa. To designate groups that were defined in the Population Registration Act, 1950, I have adopted what has become a most common code in South Africa and used the labels: Africans, coloureds, Indians, and whites (I have retained initial capitals for coloureds and whites in quotations where they were originally used); blacks encompass all the victims of apartheid (Africans, coloureds and Indians). Having recourse to these labels does not amount in any way to granting them an intrinsic value. But the history of South Africa — and the effects it continues to have upon the organisation of today’s South African society and on the representations South

Prelude ix

Africans entertain about each other — makes it necessary to use these labels to try and assess both their irrelevance in terms of what they suggest about the distinction and separation of the people they designated, and their powerful effects on the structures of social life. Similarly, it is impossible in such a study not to use the word “race” and a number of the words in the composition of which it enters. I have chosen to put systematically “race” between inverted comas to underline that “race” is devoid of any biological basis and should only be considered as a social construct. The spelling of some words sometimes varies according to sources — one can find, for instance Guguletu and Gugulethu, ghoema and goema — and I have tried to use only one spelling in the text, but have respected spellings used by other authors I quote.

Political correctness has also affected the way it is now deemed decent to speak of certain cultural practices. With respect to the New Year festivals, “Coon” has become almost taboo, and “Minstrel” is now contested. In my opinion, this illustrates an incapacity to understand that, in international languages such as English, the meaning of words change in the course of their travels, and that, for instance, when Cape Town revellers proudly claim to be Coons, they do not feel they are debasing themselves in any way. However, to try and avoid hurting the sensibility of readers who object to the use of certain terms, I have attempted to find in the actors’ vocabulary the most neutral appellations, which very often come from Afrikaans. “Coon Carnival” is referred to as Kaapse Klopse Karnaval (Carnival of Cape Town’s Clubs); “Coon troupes” as Klopse (Clubs); “Malay Choirs” as Sangkore (Singing Choirs) or Nagtroepe (Night Troupes), according to the context of their performance.

Finally, the reader will find that there is in this book almost nothing on what is regarded as Indian music. Indians constitute a tiny minority of Cape Town’s population: 1,8 per cent in 2007 (Small 2008). Music that is considered as specifically emanating from the communities that developed after the arrival of Indian indentured labourers and “passengers” during the second half of the 19" century (Vally 2001) seems to have had no noticeable influence on other musics created in Cape Town. At least, I did not encounter in my investigations traces of such an influence, and did not find any evidence of it in the extant literature’. Slaves deported from India contributed to the first creole musical forms that appeared in Cape Town, but their contribution has become undiscernable from what slaves of other origins brought to the mix. A few individuals classified as Indian did play a role in the history of music in Cape Town, as musicians playing genres that were not deemed “Indian” and as club owners. Indian music certainly influenced the repertoires of modern gasidah bands, but mainly through Bollywood films, x Prelude possibly relayed by South African Indian artists. There have been in recent years sessions of Indian classical music at the UCT College of Music and the District Six Museum. And in 2003 jazz musicians from Cape Town met three Indian classical musicians, but the three of them hailed from India’. The near absence of Indian South African music in this volume does not mean any disinterest or contempt for it, but results from the fact that it does not feature strikingly in the history of Cape Town musics, and has not yet been the object of detailed study. I also wish to thank the French Society for Ethnomusicology, which granted financial support to the publication of this book.

1. On Indian music in South Africa, see: Jackson 1988, 1989, 1991; Pillay 1994; the bibliographies and discographies given in these articles. On recent developments, see: “Bollywood in Cape Town’, http://www.sutramagazine.net/index.php?option=com_ k2&view=item&id=49:bollywood-in-cape-town&Itemid=186 (accessed 19/07/2011) and, about South African Chutney music: Servan-Schreiber 2010: 206-218.

2. “Indian Classical Musicians And South African Jazz Musicians Fuse In Cape Town’, http:// www.mio.co.za/article/indian-classical-musicians-and-south-african-jazz-musicians-fuse-incape-town-2003-07-28 (accessed 19/07/2011). This initiative appeared as a continuation of the Indo-Jazz fusions initiated in Durban by pianist Darius Brubeck with, among others, South African bansuri flute player, Deepak Ram.

Acknowledgements

THE PROJECT WHICH resulted in the present book would probably never have been envisioned if Professor Simon Bekker had not invited me to submit a research proposal to the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS). It would not have been realised without the support of STIAS. I wish to express my gratitude to Simon Bekker, Bernard Lategan, who was in 2007 the Director of STIAS and made every effort to make my work in Stellenbosch easy and fruitful, and Ms Maria Mouton, Personal Assistant to the STIAS Director, who superbly organised my working and living environment in Stellenbosch. Research undertaken as part of this project also received funding from the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS, Research Department, Johannesburg), the Centre for International Research and Study (CERI, Sciences Po Paris), to which I was attached when this project was started, and the African Studies Centre of Sciences Po Bordeaux (today Centre Les Afriques dans le Monde, LAM), to which I was transferred in 2008. I therefore wish to thank Sophie Didier (IFAS), Christophe Jaffrelot and Christian Lequesne (CERI), and René Otayek (LAM), directors of these institutions, for their support.

The STIAS project came as a continuation of research I have conducted in and on Cape Town since the early 1990s, which resulted in, among other publications, the book Coon Carnival, New Year in Cape Town, Past and Present (Martin 1999). It means that I must also thank, without being able to mention their names again here, all who are acknowledged at the beginning of the aforementioned volume. But I would like to stress here that without initial inspiration provided by Ruth First, Chris McGregor and Sam Nolotshungu, I would never have considered doing research on South Africa.

This particular research would not have been possible without the encouragement and assistance of many friends and colleagues in Cape Town and Stellenbosch. First and foremost, Anwar Gambeno, musical director of the Tulips Malay Choir, and Melvyn Matthews, Executive Director of the Kaapse Klopse Karnaval Association, provided information, advice and contacts which made my investigations much easier; I owe them much more than I am able to express in words. The late Vincent Kolbe was, in spite of his poor health, always available to provide facts, stories and analyses related to the history of Cape Town and of its musics, which nobody else so comprehensively embraced. Vincent Kolbe xii Acknowledgements was endowed with a unique warmth, spiced with humour; his life experience, and his readiness to share it with others, make his loss irreparable. I have tried to do him justice by inserting between Parts One and Two the transcript of a long interview I videotaped at his home in 2007. Chris Ferndale, who is now Manager of Public Participation at the Western Cape Parliament, proved a most reliable friend, always generous in encouragement and assistance. When some rest was needed, Catherine Lauga-du Plessis and the late Phil du Plessis offered, as they have done for so many years, a welcoming place to eat and chat in a house that overflowed with music.

I benefited from the support of many colleagues at the three universities of the Cape region. Sylvia Bruinders, Zimitri Erasmus, Anri Herbst, Shamil Jeppie, Michael Nixon, Paul Sedres, Crain Soudien and Chris van der Merwe at the University of Cape Town; Ciraj Rassool and Leslie Witz at the University of the Western Cape; and Scarlet Cornelissen, Albert Grundlingh, Stephanus Muller, Steven Robins, Hans Roosenschoon and Kees van der Waal at the University of Stellenbosch. Be they all assured of my gratitude, as well as Cheryl Hendricks, who was then a political analyst at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town; Elaine Salo, who was then a Senior Lecturer at the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town; and Colin Miller, Project Manager at the Swiss Arts Council’s Pro Helvetia in South Africa, who is an inexhaustible source of knowledge on the history of jazz in South Africa and Cape Town.

The conversations we had and the suggestions they made contributed significantly to enriching my final project, as did my interactions with other South African colleagues and friends: Rehana Vally, then at the University of Pretoria; David B. Coplan and Christine Lucia, at the University of the Witwatersrand; Emmanuelle Gille, then Director of the Cultural Workshop and Cultural Initiative Fund (Pretoria); and Tony McGregor, who with the greatest warmth and liberality dispensed his intimate knowledge of South African jazz, which Maxine McGregor complemented with her souvenirs of the Blue Notes and the Brotherhood of Breath’s tribulations.

Obviously, this book would never had been written if musicians had not accepted to be interviewed and to share with me their experiences and visions of Cape Town. I am therefore deeply thankful to: Glen Arendse and Garth Erasmus; Billy Baatjies; Wayne Bosch; Bertie Coetzee; Louwina and Johan de Villiers, Laura, Serena, Vuyiswa and Vuyo of the Libertas Choir; Raji Divajee and Ismail Philander; Ikey Gamba; Anwar Gambeno and the young members of the Tulips Malay Choir; Emile Jansen (a.k.a. Emile YX?); Samuel J. Jonker (+); Reza Khota; David Kramer; Camillo Lombard and the students of Xulon Music Tech; André Manuel; Pamela

Acknowledgements xiii

Mtati; “Steve” Mvuzo Ndengezi and the members of the Hlanganani Marimba Group; Duke Ngcukana (+); Glenn Robertson; Phumi Tsewu; Titi Tsira; Alex Van Heerden (+); Timon Wapenaar; and George Werner. Several of them have passed away since I interviewed them. This volume is also meant to pay tribute to their contribution to keeping music alive in Cape Town. The round tables on South African and Cape Town musics I organised as part of my fellowship at STIAS proved to be a rich source of additional information and reflection, and participants must be thanked again for their contribution to the debates. The musicians who discussed Cape Town musics were: Anwar Gambeno, Phumi Tsewu, Timon Wapenaar, and George Werner; the academics who endeavoured to define the characteristics of South African music were: Sylvia Bruinders (University of Cape Town), David B. Coplan (University of the Witwatersrand), Anri Herbst (University of Cape Town), Christine Lucia (University of the Witwatersrand), Ncebakazi Mnukwana (University of Cape Town), Stephanus Muller (University of Stellenbosch) and Michael Nixon (University of Cape Town).

The few, but incredibly enriching, meetings I had with the late Edouard Glissant obviously shaped my understanding of creolisation, and of its capacity to generate new visions of the history of South Africa. Without the mentorship of Simha Arom (Emeritus Senior Research Fellow, National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris), I would never have been able to produce any academic text on music; for this research, he very kindly accepted to compare several rhythmic patterns, which allowed me to present new hypotheses on the origins of the ghoema beat. Carlos Sandroni (Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil), found the mysterious Brazilian song Vincent Kolbe remembered from his youth; he proved, once again, an excellent friend. Donald R. Hill (Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta) generously shared with me his early recordings of Sangkore and boereorkes.

The intellectual environment in which I worked at CERI (Paris), then at LAM (Bordeaux) always proved stimulating. Collective reflection on “identities” that developed within the Inter-Centre Research Workshop on “Identités, Pouvoirs, Identifications (Identities, Powers and Identifications) associating several centres of the French National Foundation for Political Sciences, including CERI and LAM, provided the theoretical framework (Martin ed. 2010) within which I introduced the examination of the role of music in identity configurations. Discussions that took place within the International Research Group (GDRI) on “African Cities”, piloted by Simon Bekker (University of Stellenbosch) and Laurent Fourchard (LAM, Bordeaux), shed new light on my perceptions of Cape Town. One of the mottoes of the French May 1968 movement was “Every teacher is taught [by his/ xiv Acknowledgements her students]” (Zout enseignant est enseigné). This proved particularly true with respect to my work on Cape Town. After she submitted her PhD dissertation, Christine Ludl worked at the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand, and made a significant contribution to the theory of social representations; Armelle Gaulier, in two Master’s dissertations, analysed in detail moppies and nederlandsliedjies sung by Sangkore and Klopse choirs (Gaulier 2007, 2009, 2010); and Lorraine Roubertie assessed the role of Sheer Sound Records in the renewal of South African jazz after 1990 (Roubertie 2006) before she undertook for her PhD a comprehensive examination of how jazz is taught and transmitted in Cape Town (Roubertie 2012). Over the years, their research significantly enriched my own research.

Bob White (Professor of Anthropology, University of Montreal), Xabier Itcaina (Emile Durkheim Centre, Sciences Po Bordeaux), and Armelle Gaulier read a draft of the first chapter of this book; their comments suggested beneficial adjustments and revisions, for which I am most thankful.

François van Schalkwyk, of African Minds, who had been instrumental in making readable the manuscript of Coon Carnival, New Year in Cape Town, Past and Present (Martin 1999), showed a very stimulating enthusiasm as soon as I told him about the present book’s project, and provided the kind of support authors dream of receiving from publishers. Felicity Gallagher and Simon Chislett corrected and polished my sometimes clumsy English and prepared the manuscript with a dexterous precision, for which I am immensely grateful.

Finally, my wife, Christine, survived the long gestation of this book and managed to cope with my difficulties and anxieties. I hope that she finds in this volume, and in the fact that I have been able to complete it, the expression of my appreciation and love.

Music Dates Social and political history San rock paintings, some describing Late Stone scenes of dances involving dancers Age till early wearing ankle rattles 20" century 2 December: Vasco da Gama entertained by a group of Khoikhoi H ; 1497 musicians at a place near today’s Mossel Bay 6 April: Jan van Riebeeck lands at 1652 the Cape to create a refreshment station for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Shaykh Abdurahman Matahe Sha and 1667 Shaykh Mahmood of Sumatra are deported to the Cape, where they sow the first seeds of Islam in South Africa Black musicians entertain guests at ae 1676 Cape Town Governor's residence Slave musicians play in Cape Town 18%_19% taverns century First mention of a possible creole song: a certain Biron is condemned for singing “dubious ditties ‘half in 1707 Malay, half in Dutch’ in the streets of Cape Town”

First mention of the ramkie, a plucked lute particular to South Africa, possibly derived from lutes 1730s brought by slaves from Indonesia or Madagascar Creole (locally born) slaves become 1760s the majority of the slave population in Cape Town Cape Frontier Wars, or “Xhosa Wars”: series of battles for the land 1779-1879 between white settlers and Xhosaspeaking people living east of the Fish River xvi Timeline

Music Dates Social and political history

Conquest of the Cape by the British, who return it to the Dutch in 1802, but finally occupy it again in 1806;

1733 British rule over the Cape is finally

sanctioned by the Vienna Congress in 1815

“Black fiddlers” play for European

dancers at Lady Ann Barnard’s 1797

residence

Description of Muslim Sufi rituals Late 18"

including specific songs century

“Free blacks” give music lessons to Early 19"

slaves in Cape Town century

“Hottentot Code” is imposed, whereby 1809 Khoikhoi are required to carry passes when moving around in public

Mentions of “Hottentots”

state . 1811-1812 appropriating European melodies Ntsikana Gaba composes his “Great Hymn’, the first African Christian 1822 song New Year is celebrated with street 1823 parades Foundation of Lovedale Presbyterian Mission Station, where African pupils 1824 learn European hymns and music Widow Colyn of Klein Constantia 1825 keeps a slave orchestra

Ordinance 50 removes the most restrictive provisions of the 1809 “Hottentot Law”: all discriminatory

1829 measures against the Khoikhoi are abolished; the Khoikhoi and “free persons of colour” legally enjoy the same rights as whites

1 December: Abolition of slavery at the Cape. Former slaves celebrate

1834 Abolition by parading in the streets to the accompaniment of musical instruments xvii

Music Dates Social and political history Great Trek: 12 000 Afrikaner settlers, along with some of their former

1835-1843 slaves, leave the Cape Colony and travel north, where they will found the Boer Republics

Former “apprentices” celebrate with 1838 End of “apprenticeship”

singing in the streets

Opening of the Genadendal Training

School, introduction of Moravian 1838

brass-bands style of playing

“Coloured” and “Malayan” bands Second

play for Cape Town’s “high society” half of 19"

century 1853 First constitution of the Cape Province, supposedly “colour blind”

First performance of a troupe of 1862

Christy's Minstrels in Cape Town

Cape Town Klopse celebrate the

New Year by parading in the streets

in various costumes, singing and 1870s

playing little sketches: beginnings of

the New Year Carnival (Kaapse Klopse

Karnaval)

1881 First Anglo-Boer War

The Salvation Army begins its work

in Cape Town; introduction of 1883

Salvation Army brass-band style

John Knox Bokwe publishes a

collection of African hymns entitled 1885

Amaculo ase Lovedale, which includes

Ntsikana Gaba’s “Great Hymn”

First visit to the Cape of Orpheus M. 1890

McAdoo’s Virginia Jubilee Singers

Enoch Sontonga composes “Nkosi 1897

Sikelel iAfrika”

“Rainbow Balls”, master and servants Late 19*

mix in dancing century

1899-1902 Second Anglo-Boer War

1 January: First carnival competitions 1907 held at the Green Point Track xviii

Dates

Social and political history

Creation of the Union of South Africa as a free governing dominion within the British Empire uniting the Cape Colony, the Natal Colony and the Republics of Transvaal and Orange

Foundation of the South African Native National Congress, which becomes the African National Congress in 1923

Native Land Act: blacks can only own land in the “Reserves”, which represent 7,3 per cent of the total land area of South Africa; extended to 12,7 per cent by the 1936 Native Trust and Land Act

American records reach the Cape

Late 1910s

Reservation of Separate Amenities Act establishing segregation in public places

Native Urban Areas Act: Africans are forced to live in urban “locations”

Langa developed as a “model” location for Cape Town Africans

The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, is shown at Cape Town cinemas

Temmy Hawker, Jimmy Adams and “Cups and Saucers” Nkanuka active on the Cape Town dance and jazz scenes

David de Lange most popular Afrikaans singer; frequently records with a coloured banjo player, George Abrahams; some of his songs are banned by the SABC Creation of the Eoan Group 1933 Creation of the Cape Malay Choir Board 1233 The National Party wins the elections 1948 on a programme of “separate development” (apartheid)

xix

Music Dates Social and political history Enactment of laws organising apartheid: Population Registration

1950 Act; Group Areas Act; Immorality (Amendment) Act; Suppression of Communism Act

1950 The Pan African Congress (PAC) is founded

Creation of the Suid-Afrikaanse

Koorraad by Sangkore refusing to 1952

participate in the Van Riebeeck

Festival

Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim)

makes his first recording with the 1954

Tuxedo Slickers 26 June: a Freedom Charter is

1955 adopted by the Congress of the People gathered at Kliptown, Soweto Implementation of a Coloured

1955 Labour Preference Policy in the Cape Province

The Eoan Group opera company Treason Trial: 156 anti-apartheid

performs Giuseppe Verdi’s La activists, are arrested and charged

mecha : 1956 ar re 3

Traviata in Italian with “high treason”; they are eventually acquitted in 1961

First recordings of kwela by Elias 1956

Lerole

The musical King Kong plays for

several months in Cape Town; Chris

McGregor invites Hugh Masekela,

Jonas Gwangwa and Kippie 1957

Moeketsi, who play in the backing

orchestra, to perform at the UCT

College of Music

Dollar Brand (Adbullah Ibrahim)

and the Jazz Epistles record Verse 1, a 1959

manifesto of South African modern

jazz 21 March: Sharpeville Massacre

1960 — police open fire on a crowd demonstrating against pass laws, killing 69 people xx Music Dates Social and political history Following the adoption of the Unlawful Organisations Act, No. 34 1960 of 1960, the ANC and the PAC are banned Creation of the non-racial Southern 31 May: South Africa leaves the African Music Rights Organisation 1961 Commonwealth and becomes a Republic Chris McGregor organises a concert with African musicians from Langa 1961 at the University of Cape Town Dollar Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Reorganisation of the SABC, Sathima “Bea” Benjamin, Johnny 1962 creation of Radio Bantu Gertze and Makaya Ntoshko leave for Europe Chris McGregor and his Septet perform at the Castle Lager Jazz 1962 Festival, Moroka Jabavu Stadium, Soweto Gideon Nxumalo records his Jazz Fantasia during a live performance at 1962 the University of the Witwatersrand CAPAB (Cape Performing Arts 1963 Board) is established Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes 11 July: 19 ANC leaders are arrested; perform at the Cold Castle Moroka in 1964, Nelson Mandela and Walter Jabavu Jazz Festival; a few days later 1963 Sisulu are found guilty of sabotage Chris McGregor and the Castle and given life sentences Lager Big Band record Jazz: The African Sound for Gallo July: Chris McGregor and the Blue Notes leave South Africa with an exit 1964 visa and perform at the Antibes- Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival in France 1966 District Six is declared a “whites only area’ 6 September: Prime Minister 1966 Hendrik F. Verwoerd is murdered by a white parliamentary messenger xxi

Music Dates Social and political history “Border Wars”: South African military forces intervene in Namibia

1966-1389 and Angola to fight SWAPO and the MPLA July: Launch of the University Christian Movement, which becomes 1967 : ` ; SNE a major vehicle for disseminating Black Consciousness ideas

Winston Mankunku Ngozi records

“Yakhal'Inkomo” (The bellowing 1968

bull)

The United Nations declare a

cultural boycott of South Africa 1968 i sot

to protest against the policies of

apartheid

Opening of the Nico Malan theatre 1971

June: Abdullah Ibrahim, Robbie

Jansen and Basil Coetzee record 1974

“Mannenberg”

Morris Goldberg records Urban Jazz

Band, with Cecil Ricca and Monty 1975

Weber

Pacific Express (Robbie Jansen, 5 January: SATV (for whites) is

Issy Ariefdien, Basil “Mannenberg” launched

Coetzee, Chris Schilder, Jack 1976

Momple, Paul Abrahams, Zane

Adams) records Black Fire 16 June: Soweto Uprising — a series of high school student-led protests against the introduction of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in

1976 ; schools are violently put down, causing the death of approximately 176 people, including a number of children

Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu

form the band Juluka Late 1276 12 September: Steve Biko, leader of

1977 the Black Consciousness Movement, dies at the hands of the police xxii Music Dates Social and political history 19 October: Organisations linked to 1977 the Black Consciousness Movement are banned Blacks are allowed to form trade 1979 unions: Creation of FOSATU (Federation of South African Trade Unions) David Kramer releases his debut School boycotts in Cape Town album Bakgat! 1980 Ghomma, by Hans Roosenschoon, an “art” music composition inspired 1980 by the music of the Klopse and the Sangkore Creation of the Tafelberg Koorraad TV channels SABC 2 and 3, aimed 1982 : at black audiences, are launched Amampondo release their first Tricameral Constitution: in album, Heartbeat of Africa, addition to the House of Assembly Uyandibiza, which signals the 1983 (whites), two separate assemblies emergence of marimba bands in are created for coloureds (House of Cape Town Representatives) and Indians (House of Delegates) Formation of the mixed band Mango Launch of the End Conscription Groove Campaign (EEC) to protest the 1983 drafting of young white males who are sent to fight the “Border Wars” in Namibia and Angola John Simons composes Threnody 2 28 August: launch of the United for Strings for Steve Biko, an “art” Democratic Front (UDF) in music composition dedicated to the 1983 Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plain, founder of the Black Consciousness Cape Town Movement Basil “Mannenberg” Coetzee and Paul Abrahams regularly perform at 1983-1988 UDF rallies Timbila, by Hans Roosenschoon, a composition combining a symphony 1984 orchestra and a Chopi xylophone ensemble Creation of COSATU 1985 (Confederation of South African

Trade Unions), which unites all trade unions opposed to apartheid xxiii

Music Dates Social and political history 20 July: Declaration of a State of Emergency in the Eastern Cape and the Transvaal; extended in August to 1985 the Western Cape; demonstrations and meetings against apartheid, and various boycotts become permanent until the end of the 1980s Shifty Records release the LP Forces E A 1986 Favourites in support of the EEC Kevin Volans White Man Sleeps, for 1986 harpsichord and viola da gamba Basil “Mannenberg” Coetzee records 1986 Sabenza Creation of MAPP (Music Action ; è 1986 for People’s Power) in Cape Town Creation of SAMA (South African The ANC organises the “Culture in Musicians Alliance) 1987 Another South Africa” conference in Amsterdam Gerald “Mac” McKenzie records Mr 1987 Mac and The Genuines Taliep Petersen and David Kramer’s District Six: The Musical opens at the 1987 Baxter Theatre Creation of Tananas with Gito Baloi, 1987 Ian Herman and Steve Newman Bright Blue records “Weeping”, The United Nations extend their which includes a quotation from 1988 boycott of South Africa to all “Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika” cultural and academic activities 1988 24 February: the UDF is banned Shifty Records release Kalahari P.W. Botha resigns and is succeeded Surfers LP Bigger than Jesus 1989 by EW. de Klerk as leader of the National Party and President of the Republic Darius Brubeck opens the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music at the 1989 University of Natal Voëlvry Afrikaans rock movement 1989 Robbie Jansen records Vastrap Island, which includes the song “How I'd 1989