MusicThe decade following the Second World War was the great era of jazz in South Africa, a time of significant artistic development for the country, but also a period of devastating social upheaval with the rise of apartheid. Jazz was seen as much more than a musical style – it represented an urbanised sophistication which stood in the face of prevailing apartheid ideology. Pan-tribalist and resolutely optimistic, jazz acted as a useful vehicle for a subtle form of reaction to the draconian workings of the state. A cutting-edge Americanised culture took hold in many townships, where types of dress, language and music were adopted as the ultimate opposition to the lifestyle encouraged by the government. South African jazz became known as Marabi, with its roots in the Maraba township in Pretoria. While much of South Africa’s better- known jazz developed around Johannesburg, famously represented by the socially vital magazine Drum, most jazz musicians and their audiences came from similar urban backgrounds, and a different scene began to flourish in Cape Town. Although earlier African-American music was influenced by visiting American musicians, no such jazz artists toured South Africa until the mid-1950s. Instead, inspiration was transmitted mostly through film and recorded music. Cape Town however had the added advantage of being a port, and much of the vibrant scene there is attributed to the incoming influence of American sailors. Not only did visiting sailors bring records and movies, but some of the battleships which docked in Cape Town had jazz bands on board, and new sounds spread quickly from the docks to the townships. But Cape Town’s township jazz bands were not content with merely copying what they heard – instead, they combined the sounds of American swing with African beats and improvisation, creating a unique fusion which became known as Cape Jazz. Arguably the godfather of Cape Jazz is pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, also known as Dollar Brand. Born in Cape Town in 1934, Dollar was brought up on traditional African songs, religious music and jazz, and became a professional musician in 1949, playing with the Tuxedo Slickers and Willie Max Big Band. In the late 1950s he joined Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwanga and Kippie Moeketsi to become a central figure in South Africa’s progressive jazz movement, which took its lead from New York-based sounds. They formed the Jazz Epistles, cut a groundbreaking record and performed to international critical acclaim at the first Cold Castle National Jazz Festival in 1960. The heady days of the late 50s and early 60s soon came to an end however, and Cape Jazz, like so many other forms of cultural expression, was slowly being strangled by the state. Following the Sharpeville massacre, the cultural boycott, ludicrous radio restrictions and police bannings, many of the key players left South Africa, mainly for Europe and US. However, a handful of well- known artists stayed in South Africa, including the late Basil Coetzee, born in District Six and first gaining musical credit with Ibrahim. Coetzee remained in South Africa after the departure of many of his colleagues, and weathered the lean years working in a shoe factory. He was re-joined by prominent saxophonist Robbie Jansen in the early-1980s and so began a new chapter in Cape Jazz. A group of musicians, headed by Jansen and Coetzee, performed throughout the turbulent period of 1985-90, mostly at political and cultural events across the country, cementing the key role of music in the anti-apartheid struggle. Meanwhile, exiled musicians continued to expand the genre abroad, and at the end of apartheid many of the original creators of Cape Jazz returned. The scene is once again flourishing. Old-timers such as Ibrahim and Jansen continue to dominate, although new influences, both from abroad and around South Africa, are once again changing the face of Cape Jazz. Yet its vital elements will always remain – both as a form of musical expression and cultural demonstration. BooksLiteratureSouth Africa has produced a number of internationally recognized and award-winning novelists. Probably the best known is Nadine Gordimer. Her novels include A Guest of Honour, The Conservationist (winner of the 1974 Booker Prize), Burger’s Daughter, July’s People, A Sport of Nature, My Son’s Story and None to Accompany Me. Her beautifully written work tends to concentrate on the way wider political/social events impact on individual lives. Another award-winning South African novelist is John Coetzee, whose novels include Dusklands, In the Heart of the Country, Waiting for the Barbarians, Life & Times of Michael K, Age of Iron, Foe and The Master of Petersburg. His language is stark and the atmosphere is bleak. Bessie Head is a third widely respected South African author, though much of her work is set in Botswana where she was exiled in 1964. She wrote three novels – When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru and the semi-autobiographical A Question of Power, a collection of short-stories The Collection of Treasures, and a portrait of the Botswanan village where she lived and eventually died at the age of just 49, Serowe, The Village of the Rain-wind. Andre Brink is another internationally recognized South African author who has published in both English and Afrikaans. His novels in English include A Chain of Voices, The Ambassador, Looking on Darkness, Rumours of Rain, An Act of Terror and A Dry White Season (made into a Hollywood film). Like Coetzee he has published extensively on literary criticism as well as his own fiction. All of these authors are highly recommended though their work is not always easy going – especially just about everything by Coetzee and Head’s A Question of Power. Tom Sharpe, a Englishman who lived in South Africa throughout the 1950s, represents a very different literary genre from all the books mentioned above. His two South African novels Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure are both hilarious, especially because the absurd and grotesque situations and characters he conjures up seem eminently believable in the South African context. Another South African novelist, representing a previous generation, is Alan Paton, internationally recognized and loved by many (though others find him overly sentimental). He is best known for his novel Cry the Beloved Country but he also published two others – Too Late the Phalarope and Ah, But Your Land is Beautiful, a collection of short stories Debbie Go Home and many works of non-fiction. Another well-known South African novel is Olive Schreiner’s The Story of an African Farm. When it was first published in 1883 (under the pseudonym Ralph Iron) it received notoriety for its feminist and anti-racist message. Rider Haggard, who published his hugely popular King Solomon’s Mines two years after Schreiner published The Story of an African Farm, covered very different subjects. The romantic theme of his novels with an African setting, such as King Solomon’s Mines and She, remain popular today. They are certainly better written and more exciting than their modern counterparts of the Wilbur Smith variety. The majority of the internationally recognized South African novelists described above are white. This does not mean, however, that there is not a tradition of novel writing amongst South Africa’s African, Coloured and Indian populations. The two earliest African novelists in the country were RRR Dhlomo, who wrote An African Tragedy, first published 1928 and Sol Plaatje, who wrote Mhudi, completed in 1917 but not published until 1930. During the apartheid years, however, many Africans concentrated on more overtly political writings than novels. Some of these are outlined below. Short stories have also been a fairly popular form of literature: interesting collections include Hungry Flames and other Black South African Short Stories, edited by Mbulelo Mzamane, Harlow, Longman, 1986 and The Penguin Book of Contemporary South African Short Stories, edited by Stephen Gray, London, Penguin, 1993. Autobigraphy and political writingThe autobiography that has received most attention is, not surprisingly, Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom, London, Little Brown, 1994, a fascinating, if at times heavy-going, insight to the struggle. A number of other ANC leaders have also published autobiographies, including a posthumous publication by Joe Slovo, Slovo: the unfinished autobiography, Randburg, Ravan Press, 1995. Previous generations of African leaders also published autobiographies including ZK Matthews Freedom for my People: Southern Africa 1901-1968, edited by Monica Wilson, London, Collins, 1981, and Clements Kadalie My Life and the ICU: the Autobiography of a Black Trade Unionist in South Africa, edited by Stanley Trapido, London, Cassell, 1970. Autobiographies tracing the lives of less famous South Africans include two volumes from Ezekiel Mphahlele Down Second Avenue and Afrika my Music: an Autobiography, Johannesburg, Ravan Press, 1984, Bloke Modisane Blame me on History, London, Penguin, 1990, and the highly recommended Call me Woman by Ellen Kuzwayo, London, Women’s Press, 1985. There have also been a number of collections of political speeches, articles and other writing by major political figures such as Steve Biko’s I Write what I Like, edited by Aelred Stubbs, Edinburgh, Heinemann, 1987. Others have published diaries written while in prison, such as Albie Sachs’s The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, London, Paladin, 1990. Another interesting diary is Sol Plaatje’s Mafeking Diary: a Black Man’s View of a White Man’s War, edited by John L Comaroff, Johannesburg, Southern Book Publishers, 1989. History and biographyMany readers find that history comes alive more through biography than through general textbooks. Recommended and widely available biographies include: Peter Alexander’s biography of the South African novelist and well-known liberal Alan Paton, Alan Paton, (Oxford, OUP, 1994); William Hancock’s two volume biography of Jan Smuts, The Sanguine Years, 1870-1919 and The Fields of Force 1919-1950 (Cambridge, CUP, 1962 and 1968); Richard Mendelsohn’s biography of the businessman Sammy Marks, Sammy Marks (Cape Town, David Philip, 1991); Antony Thomas’s book on Cecil Rhodes, Rhodes: The Face for Africa (Johannesburg, Jonathan Ball, 1996); Donald Woods’s book on Steve Biko – the basis for the film ‘Cry Freedom’ – Biko (London, Paddington Press, 1978); Ruth First’s biography of the late 19th/early 20th-century novelist, feminist and anti-racism campaigner Olive Schreiner, Olive Schreiner (London, Women’s Press, 1989); and finally Brian Willan on Sol Plaatje, the novelist and early African nationalist, Sol Plaatje: South African Nationalist 1876-1932 (London, Heinemann, 1984). Biography tends to be associated with the lives of ‘great men’: one that is not is Charles Van Onselen’s The Seed is Mine: the Life of Kas Maine, a South African Sharecropper, 1894-1985 (Oxford, James Curry,1996) – it is a long book but fascinating and highly recommended. Natural history and environmentGood guides to game parks, wildlife and natural history include: Jean Dorst and Pierre Dandelot A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa (London, Collins); Gordon Maclean Roberts’ Birds of South Africa (Cape Town, CTP); CW Mackworth- Praed and CHB Grant Birds of the Southern third of Africa (London, Longman, 1963) and Eve Palmer Field Guide to the Trees of Southern Africa (London, Collins, 1977). Three general books on the South African environment and environmental problems are: Mamphela Ramphela (ed) Restoring the Land (London, Panos, 1991), Jacklyn Cock and Eddie Koch (eds.) Going Green: People, Politics and the Environment in South Africa (Cape Town, OUP, 1991) and Munyaradzi Chenje and Phyllis Johnson (eds) State of the Environment in Southern Africa (Harare, SARDC, 1994). LanguageThere are 11 official languages in South Africa. Throughout the country English is widely spoken and understood. About 60% of white South Africans, and most of the coloured community in Cape Town, speak Afrikaans. The majority of black South Africans in Cape Town speak Xhosa. You will find that most people are bilingual, and road signs, for example, alternate between being in Afrikaans and English. There are a few pockets where only Afrikaans is spoken, but people should understand enough English to meet your needs. Nevertheless, it is always worth making the effort to learn a few words of Afrikaans or Xhosa – people are generally delighted that you’ve made the effort. English Afrikaans Xhosa how are you? hoe gaan dit? kunjani? please asseblief nceda thank you dankie enkosi yes ja ewe no nee hayi excuse me verskoon my uxolo braai South African equivalent of a barbecue burg a term referring to a borough dorp a small country settlement where a road crosses a dry river bed rooinek literally ‘redneck’, a disparaging term used to describe English-speaking white South Africans Vlei low lying lake or swamp
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