4.4.1 MGS102 Module Content: Weeks 1, 2 and 3

MGS102 Weeks 1, 2 and 3: Part 1

MGS102 Contents
MGS102 Weeks 1, 2 and 3: Part 2 | MGS102 Weeks 1, 2 and 3: Part 3
MGS102 Weeks 1, 2 and 3: Part 4

Black South African working-class urban music ca. 1920 - ca. 1945

This is the main text for this section. Click here to see the bibliography for MGS102Read and prepare for discussion: ITT, Chapter 3 "Black Johannesburg, 1900-20", p.56-60; ITT, Chapter 4 "Working-class performance culture between the World Wars"; and ITT, Chapter 5 "Elite performance culture between the World Wars", p. 130-139.
Additional readingRead T. Cameron & S.B. Spies, A New Illustrated History of South Africa, second revised edition (Johannesburg: Southern Book Publishers and Human & Rousseau, 1992).
Much of the data that we have relates to music and life in the townships, locations and slumyards of Johannesburg after the "discovery" of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886. Coplan's ITT chapters deal with the period after the Boer War of 1899-1902. The texts cited below include additional information:

Marabi and Jazz?
Marabi music and jazz (Is marabi jazz?)
Audio Data Track 11 (Amanzimtoti Players, "Sbhinono", Johannesburg, 4 November 1932) from the Marabi Nights cassette recording accompanying MN. [I,1]
Coplan, D. 1985. In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. ITT, p. 106, last paragragh to p. 107, line 3.
An historical introduction to the events surrounding black urbanisation:
Johannesburg, 1886 - ca. 1930
The discovery of gold (1886), the influx of white and black miners, informal housing, and entertainment (bars, shebeens, gambling dens and brothels);
Bonner, P. & L. Segal. 1998. Soweto: a History. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman. SaH, p. 10-11.
the need for labour and tax laws: hut tax, poll tax, labour tax;
Callinicos, L. 1981. Gold and Workers. A People's History of South Africa, vol. 1. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. GaW, 22-23.
early pass laws, Transvaal pass laws, the 1896 laws, the 1897 wage cuts, 1899 and the Boer War, the new pass system after the War;
Additional reading Read Thomas Pakenham's The Boer War (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1997 [1979]).
Callinicos, L. 1981. Gold and Workers. A People's History of South Africa, vol. 1. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. GaW, p. 39-42.
the settlement of Johannesburg in the early 1900s: permanent white miners with families and short-term contract black migrant labourers ;
Bonner, P. & L. Segal. 1998. Soweto: a History. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman. SaH, p. 11.
Additional reading Read C. van Onselen's Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand 1886-1914, vol. 1: New Babylon; vol. 2: New Nineveh. Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1982.
public health policies and segregation: Klipspruit-Nancefield;
slumlords and slumyards: Doornfontein;
freehold townships: Sophiatown, Martindale and Newclare;
Coplan, D. 1985. In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. ITT, p. 58-60.
Bonner, P. & L. Segal. 1998. Soweto: a History. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman. SaH, p. 13-14.
Callinicos, L. 1987. Working Life. A People's History of South Africa, vol. 2. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. WL, p. 179-182.
Additional reading Read Modikwe Dikobe's Marabi Dance, African Writers Series, vol. 124 (London: Heinemann).
the need for labour and the squatter laws: the 1913 Native Trust and Land Act;
Callinicos, L. 1981. Gold and Workers. A People's History of South Africa, vol. 1. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. GaW, p. 24-26.
Additional reading Read Sol. T Plaatje's Native Life in South Africa. Ravan Writers Series (Randburg: Ravan 1982 [1916]).
Additional reading Read Natives Land Act 1913 Specific Cases of Evictions and Hardships, etc. Collected and Compiled by R.W. Msimang. Voices of Black South Africans (VOBSA) Series (Cape Town: Friends of the South African Library, 1996).
African urbanisation (1920s and '30s), the Natives Urban Areas Act of 1923 and Orlando in the 1930s;
Coplan, D. 1985. In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. ITT, p. 90-91.
the liquor trade and shebeen society (liquor, dancing, music, musicians and marabi).
Coplan, D. 1985. In Township Tonight! South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. ITT, p. 56-58, 92-93.
Audio Data Track 12 (Nkandla Guitar Players, "Evelina", Johannesburg, from the Marabi Nights ca. 1948) cassette accompanying MN. [I,2]recording

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MGS102 Weeks 1, 2 and 3: Part 2 | MGS102 Weeks 1, 2 and 3: Part 3
MGS102 Weeks 1, 2 and 3: Part 4