Swines, hazels and the dirty dozen: Masculinity, territoriality and the youth gangs of Soweto, 1960-1976

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 24, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 719-736

  Glaser, Clive ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL HISTORY; GENDER IDENTITY; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; TERRITORIALITY; TWENTIETH CENTURY; URBAN POPULATION; VIOLENCE; YOUNG POPULATION;

GAUTENG PROVINCE; SOUTH AFRICA; SOWETO;

EID: 0032424614     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057079808708598     Document Type: Article

References (83)

1. See Paul La Hausse, '"Mayihlome": Towards an understanding of Amalaita gangs in Durban, c1900-1930', in S. Clingman (ed), Regions and Repertoires: Topics in South African Politics and Culture (Johannesburg, 1991) and 'The Message of the Warriors', in P. Bonner, I. Hofmeyr, D. James and T. Lodge (eds), Holding their Ground (Johannesburg, 1989); William Beinart, 'The Origins of the Indlavini: Male Association and Migrant Labour in the Transkei', African Studies, 50 (1991); Phil Bonner, 'The Russians on the Reef, 1947-1957: Urbanisation, Gang Warfare and Ethnic Mobilisation', in P. Bonner, P. Delius and D. Posel (eds), Apartheid's Genesis 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993).
2. See Paul La Hausse, '"Mayihlome": Towards an understanding of Amalaita gangs in Durban, c1900-1930', in S. Clingman (ed), Regions and Repertoires: Topics in South African Politics and Culture (Johannesburg, 1991) and 'The Message of the Warriors', in P. Bonner, I. Hofmeyr, D. James and T. Lodge (eds), Holding their Ground (Johannesburg, 1989); William Beinart, 'The Origins of the Indlavini: Male Association and Migrant Labour in the Transkei', African Studies, 50 (1991); Phil Bonner, 'The Russians on the Reef, 1947-1957: Urbanisation, Gang Warfare and Ethnic Mobilisation', in P. Bonner, P. Delius and D. Posel (eds), Apartheid's Genesis 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993).
3. See Paul La Hausse, '"Mayihlome": Towards an understanding of Amalaita gangs in Durban, c1900-1930', in S. Clingman (ed), Regions and Repertoires: Topics in South African Politics and Culture (Johannesburg, 1991) and 'The Message of the Warriors', in P. Bonner, I. Hofmeyr, D. James and T. Lodge (eds), Holding their Ground (Johannesburg, 1989); William Beinart, 'The Origins of the Indlavini: Male Association and Migrant Labour in the Transkei', African Studies, 50 (1991); Phil Bonner, 'The Russians on the Reef, 1947-1957: Urbanisation, Gang Warfare and Ethnic Mobilisation', in P. Bonner, P. Delius and D. Posel (eds), Apartheid's Genesis 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993).
4. See Paul La Hausse, '"Mayihlome": Towards an understanding of Amalaita gangs in Durban, c1900-1930', in S. Clingman (ed), Regions and Repertoires: Topics in South African Politics and Culture (Johannesburg, 1991) and 'The Message of the Warriors', in P. Bonner, I. Hofmeyr, D. James and T. Lodge (eds), Holding their Ground (Johannesburg, 1989); William Beinart, 'The Origins of the Indlavini: Male Association and Migrant Labour in the Transkei', African Studies, 50 (1991); Phil Bonner, 'The Russians on the Reef, 1947-1957: Urbanisation, Gang Warfare and Ethnic Mobilisation', in P. Bonner, P. Delius and D. Posel (eds), Apartheid's Genesis 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993).
5. For a detailed analysis of the socio-economic context of urban gang formation on the Witwatersrand, see C. Glaser, 'Anti-Social Bandits: Juvenile Delinquency and the Tsotsi Youth Gang Subculture on the Witwatersrand, 1935-1960' (MA thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1990), ch. 1.
6. For more detail on urban youth unemployment and state urbanisation policy from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, see C. Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics in Soweto, 1958-1976' (PhD thesis, Cambridge University, 1994), ch. 3 and 7.
7. See Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics', ch. 4.
8. Don Pinnock, The Brotherhoods: Street Gangs and State Control in Cape Town (Cape Town, 1987). Wilfried Scharf argues that youth gangs were largely absent in Cape Town's African townships until the mid-1980s; see W. Scharf, 'The Resurgence of Urban Street Gangs and Community Responses in Cape Town during the Late Eighties', in D. Hansson and D. Van Zyl Smit (eds), Towards Justice: Crime and State Control in South Africa (Cape Town, 1990).
9. Don Pinnock, The Brotherhoods: Street Gangs and State Control in Cape Town (Cape Town, 1987). Wilfried Scharf argues that youth gangs were largely absent in Cape Town's African townships until the mid-1980s; see W. Scharf, 'The Resurgence of Urban Street Gangs and Community Responses in Cape Town during the Late Eighties', in D. Hansson and D. Van Zyl Smit (eds), Towards Justice: Crime and State Control in South Africa (Cape Town, 1990).
10. A. Mager and G. Minkley, 'Reaping the Whirlwind: the East London Riots of 1952', in P. Bonner, P. Delius and D. Posel (eds), Apartheid's Genesis.
11. Glaser, 'Anti-Social Bandits' focuses on the tsotsis of the 1940s and 1950s. See also P. Bonner, 'Family, Crime and Political Consciousness on the East Rand 1938-1955', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 1 (1988).
12. Glaser, 'Anti-Social Bandits' focuses on the tsotsis of the 1940s and 1950s. See also P. Bonner, 'Family, Crime and Political Consciousness on the East Rand 1938-1955', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 1 (1988).
13. A. McRobbie and J. Garber, 'Girls and Subcultures', in S. Hall and T. Jefferson (eds), Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-war Britain (London, 1976); M. Brake, The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures (London, 1980), especially the chapter entitled 'The Invisible Girl: The Culture of Femininity vs Masculinism'.
14. A. McRobbie and J. Garber, 'Girls and Subcultures', in S. Hall and T. Jefferson (eds), Resistance through Rituals: Youth Subcultures in Post-war Britain (London, 1976); M. Brake, The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures (London, 1980), especially the chapter entitled 'The Invisible Girl: The Culture of Femininity vs Masculinism'.
15. See K. A. Joe and M. Chesney-Lind, '"Just Every Mother's Angel": An Analysis of Gender and Ethnic Gang Variations in Youth Gang Membership', Gender and Society, 9, 4 (August 1995); F. M. Thrasher, The Gang: A Study of 1313 Gangs in Chicago (Chicago, 1963).
16. See K. A. Joe and M. Chesney-Lind, '"Just Every Mother's Angel": An Analysis of Gender and Ethnic Gang Variations in Youth Gang Membership', Gender and Society, 9, 4 (August 1995); F. M. Thrasher, The Gang: A Study of 1313 Gangs in Chicago (Chicago, 1963).
17. It is perhaps appropriate here to say something about my sources and research methodology. The most important documentary material came from Johannesburg Non-European Affairs Department files on juvenile delinquency, gangs, crime and social welfare dating from the early 1930s to the early 1970s. These included extracts of Advisory Board minutes and reports on related issues. Newspapers and magazines, especially the local township-focused World, Post and Drum, ran regular reports on gang activity and township crime generally. The Witwatersrand Legal Division also retains records of several big youth gang trials during the 1960s and early 1970s. Autobiographies and works of fiction added texture to the study. Finally, oral sources provided a vital supplement to the written sources. Between 1987 and 1992, I conducted about 40 interviews with ex-gangsters or township residents who experienced gangsterism indirectly. During late 1991 and 1992, a research assistant, Meverett Koetz, conducted a further 50 interviews. Whereas I concentrated on a particular network of individuals who spoke good English, Koetz, who is fluent in Afrikaans, Zulu and tsotsitaal, conducted more speculative interviews organised around specific ex-gangs and their territories. About a third of the interviewees were women; although they were gang outsiders, gangsterism had an important impact on their lives. In addition, I was allowed access to dozens of videotaped interviews conducted for the History Workshop Soweto Film Project during the early 1990s.
18. For a more detailed discussion on masculinity and the tsotsi subculture, see C. Glaser, 'The Mark of Zorro: Sexuality and Gender Relations in the Tsotsi Youth Gang Subculture on the Witwatersrand', African Studies, 51, 1 (1992). In this paper, I refer to several powerful women who carved out a reputation within the gang subculture, but they operated as independent individuals rather than within the context of a female gang.
19. See I. Mayer and P. Mayer, 'Socialisation by Peers: The Youth Organisation of the Red Xhosa', in P. Mayer (ed), Socialisation: The Approach from Social Anthropology (London, 1970) and Paul Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato: A Study of Rituals of Rebellion (Manchester, 1988). For other good examples, see Beinart, 'The Origins of the Indlavini', P. Delius, A Lion Amongst the Cattle: Reconstruction and Resistance in the Northern Transvaal (Johannesburg 1996), and P. Delius, 'Sebatakgomo: Migrant Organisation, the ANC and the Sekhukhuneland Revolt', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 4 (1989). Both Beinart and Delius describe very similar patterns of initiation in rural Mpondoland and Sekhukhuneland respectively. They analyse in some detail the adaptations of age grades to the institution of migrancy. See also Anne Mager's contribution to this edition.
20. See I. Mayer and P. Mayer, 'Socialisation by Peers: The Youth Organisation of the Red Xhosa', in P. Mayer (ed), Socialisation: The Approach from Social Anthropology (London, 1970) and Paul Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato: A Study of Rituals of Rebellion (Manchester, 1988). For other good examples, see Beinart, 'The Origins of the Indlavini', P. Delius, A Lion Amongst the Cattle: Reconstruction and Resistance in the Northern Transvaal (Johannesburg 1996), and P. Delius, 'Sebatakgomo: Migrant Organisation, the ANC and the Sekhukhuneland Revolt', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 4 (1989). Both Beinart and Delius describe very similar patterns of initiation in rural Mpondoland and Sekhukhuneland respectively. They analyse in some detail the adaptations of age grades to the institution of migrancy. See also Anne Mager's contribution to this edition.
21. See I. Mayer and P. Mayer, 'Socialisation by Peers: The Youth Organisation of the Red Xhosa', in P. Mayer (ed), Socialisation: The Approach from Social Anthropology (London, 1970) and Paul Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato: A Study of Rituals of Rebellion (Manchester, 1988). For other good examples, see Beinart, 'The Origins of the Indlavini', P. Delius, A Lion Amongst the Cattle: Reconstruction and Resistance in the Northern Transvaal (Johannesburg 1996), and P. Delius, 'Sebatakgomo: Migrant Organisation, the ANC and the Sekhukhuneland Revolt', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 4 (1989). Both Beinart and Delius describe very similar patterns of initiation in rural Mpondoland and Sekhukhuneland respectively. They analyse in some detail the adaptations of age grades to the institution of migrancy. See also Anne Mager's contribution to this edition.
22. See I. Mayer and P. Mayer, 'Socialisation by Peers: The Youth Organisation of the Red Xhosa', in P. Mayer (ed), Socialisation: The Approach from Social Anthropology (London, 1970) and Paul Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato: A Study of Rituals of Rebellion (Manchester, 1988). For other good examples, see Beinart, 'The Origins of the Indlavini', P. Delius, A Lion Amongst the Cattle: Reconstruction and Resistance in the Northern Transvaal (Johannesburg 1996), and P. Delius, 'Sebatakgomo: Migrant Organisation, the ANC and the Sekhukhuneland Revolt', Journal of Southern African Studies, 15, 4 (1989). Both Beinart and Delius describe very similar patterns of initiation in rural Mpondoland and Sekhukhuneland respectively. They analyse in some detail the adaptations of age grades to the institution of migrancy. See also Anne Mager's contribution to this edition.
23. Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato, p. 5.
24. Mayer and Mayer, 'Socialisation by Peers', p. 162.
25. Spencer, The Maasai of Matapato, p. 5.
26. I am referring here to children brought up in the city. Teenagers and young adults who migrated to the city to work and who saw the countryside as their home tended to be attracted to ethnic migrant gangs such as the amalaita, or even the Russians, rather than street gangs. The street gangs, almost by definition, excluded migrant youths.
27. For a discussion on the construction of masculinity and sexual violence in the tsotsi gang subculture see Glaser, 'The Mark of Zorro'.
28. The school/gang dichotomy is a central theme of Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics in Soweto'; see particularly ch. 4, 5 and 10.
29. Interviews: F. Mazibuko (December 1992), I. Motaung (November 1991), J. Msimanga (January 1992), T.W. Kambule (October 1991), M. Modise (M. Koetz, June 1992), M. Khoza (Koetz, April 1992) and S. Mbuli (Koetz, April 1992).
30. Population Census, 6 September 1960, vol. 7, 'Educational Levels, Africans, Johannesburg'. Figures are rounded off. Unfortunately, there were no similar age breakdowns in the 1970 Census figures, which makes it impossible to compare the 1970 data. See also Survey of Race Relations in South Africa (1961), p. 229. Kambule, interview, recalls that well over half of the students at Orlando High School were girls by the mid-1960s, a reversal of the situation earlier in the 1950s.
31. Population Census, 6 September 1960, vol. 7, 'Educational Levels, Africans, Johannesburg'. Figures are rounded off. Unfortunately, there were no similar age breakdowns in the 1970 Census figures, which makes it impossible to compare the 1970 data. See also Survey of Race Relations in South Africa (1961), p. 229. Kambule, interview, recalls that well over half of the students at Orlando High School were girls by the mid-1960s, a reversal of the situation earlier in the 1950s.
32. Population Census, 6 September 1960, Report on the Metropolitan Area of Johannesburg, vol. 2, 9, 'Bantu: Religion by Age'. Figures here are rounded off. For 1970 figures, see Population Census 1970, Report No. 02-05-03, 'Religious Breakdown by Age (SA: urban)'.
33. Population Census, 6 September 1960, Report on the Metropolitan Area of Johannesburg, vol. 2, 9, 'Bantu: Religion by Age'. Figures here are rounded off. For 1970 figures, see Population Census 1970, Report No. 02-05-03, 'Religious Breakdown by Age (SA: urban)'.
34. Interview, K. Shubane (August 1992).
35. Interviews: Shubane, K. Seathlolo (September 1992), M. Morobe, History Workshop Soweto Film Project 1991/92 (HWSFP), T. Mohapi (HWSFP).
36. See also interview, M. Siluma (December 1991), who talks similarly of a territorial 'ganging together' in Soweto in the 1960s.
37. Interviews: Mrs Mampiki (Koetz, June 1992), Bra Forker (Koetz, June 1992), Sister Grace (Koetz, June 1992), 'Zakes' Thotela (Koetz, July 1992), L. Duma (August 1992), S. Mazibuko (HWSFP).
38. Interviews: S. Mofokeng (October 1991), Mrs Sentsoe (Koetz, July 1992), Mrs Dlamini (Koetz, September 1992) Mrs Gibi (Koetz, August 1992), Bra Forker, Thotela.
39. Interviews: L. Kheswa (Koetz, June 1992), H. Mokgotsi (Koetz, September 1992), Mampiki, Morobe.
40. Interviews: Mofokeng, Siluma, G. Simelane (Koetz, April 1992), D. Nkosi (Koetz, September 1992) T. Nkosi (Koetz, July 1992).
41. See discussion of this issue in Glaser, 'The Mark of Zorro'. Interviews: S. Khumalo (Koetz, August 1992), Gibi.
42. Interviews: S. Khumalo, 'Spokes' Ndlovu (Koetz, June 1992), J. Nzimande (Koetz, December 1992).
43. Oscar Lewis, The Children of Sanchez (London, 1964), p. 38 (my emphasis).
44. For more detail on gang names of the 1960s and 1970s see Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics', ch. 5 and 8. For a discussion of gang naming during the 1940s and 1950s see Glaser, 'Anti-Social Bandits', p. 150.
45. For more detail on gang names of the 1960s and 1970s see Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics', ch. 5 and 8. For a discussion of gang naming during the 1940s and 1950s see Glaser, 'Anti-Social Bandits', p. 150.
46. For a more detailed account of Soweto's growth see Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics in Soweto', ch. 3.
47. Don Pinnock, in his pathbreaking study of Cape Flats gang culture, The Brotherhoods: Street Gangs and State Controls in Cape Town (Cape Town, 1987), argues the opposite; he insists that youth gangs were a response to the absence of community cohesion on the Cape Flats. Following the forced relocation of coloured communities in Cape Town during the 1960s and 1970s, the kinship and neighbourhood networks of the old coloured townships such as District Six were dispersed. In District Six neighbours, friends and extended family members kept an eye on local youths and prevented them from getting up to serious mischief. By contrast, the new Cape Flats townships were impersonal; 'the isolated family could no longer call on the resources of the extended family or neighbourhood'. Unsupervised children searching for support and companionship, Pinnock concludes, drifted into youth gangs and crime (pp. 51-59). Pinnock is probably correct to assert that supportive social networks were Footnote 35 continued severely disrupted by the removals. Nevertheless, he fails to explain why youth gangs emerged in the Cape Flats only around 1980, a considerable time-lag given that the bulk of relocations took place between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s. If gang formation were indeed a response to dislocation, gangs, according to Pinnock's model, would have formed in the earliest stages of relocation. In his early chapter on District Six Pinnock highlights the powerful 'skollie' gangs of the 1950s and the vigilante response of what became the Globe Gang (pp. 23-27). The 'skollie' gangs of that period had many similarities to what Pinnock calls the 'defence' gangs of the 1980s. How, then, does he explain the proliferation of these youth gangs in the settled and apparently community-conscious District Six of the 1950s? Gang formation cannot be attributed uncomplicatedly to the removal process.
48. Interviews: D. Mattera (July 1988), G. Moloi (March 1988), S. Motjuwadi (September 1988), G. Thwala (September 1988), P. Magubane (September 1988), N. Nkosi (September 1988) and Msimanga. See also: Rand Daily Mail (RDM) 18 December 1967 and 20 December 1967, 'The bloodiest place on Earth' and 'The Big Gangs have Lost their Glamour', features on Soweto crime by Michael Cobden; The World 12 May 1967, letter from Bert C. Selope of Diepkloof; Helen Lunn, 'Antecedents of the Music and Popular Culture of the African Post-1976 Generation' (MA thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1986), pp. 124-125.
49. Interviews: D. Mattera (July 1988), G. Moloi (March 1988), S. Motjuwadi (September 1988), G. Thwala (September 1988), P. Magubane (September 1988), N. Nkosi (September 1988) and Msimanga. See also: Rand Daily Mail (RDM) 18 December 1967 and 20 December 1967, 'The bloodiest place on Earth' and 'The Big Gangs have Lost their Glamour', features on Soweto crime by Michael Cobden; The World 12 May 1967, letter from Bert C. Selope of Diepkloof; Helen Lunn, 'Antecedents of the Music and Popular Culture of the African Post-1976 Generation' (MA thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1986), pp. 124-125.
50. Interviews: D. Mattera (July 1988), G. Moloi (March 1988), S. Motjuwadi (September 1988), G. Thwala (September 1988), P. Magubane (September 1988), N. Nkosi (September 1988) and Msimanga. See also: Rand Daily Mail (RDM) 18 December 1967 and 20 December 1967, 'The bloodiest place on Earth' and 'The Big Gangs have Lost their Glamour', features on Soweto crime by Michael Cobden; The World 12 May 1967, letter from Bert C. Selope of Diepkloof; Helen Lunn, 'Antecedents of the Music and Popular Culture of the African Post-1976 Generation' (MA thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, 1986), pp. 124-125.
51. The word 'tsotsi' probably comes from the South Sotho 'ho tsotsa', which means 'to sharpen'. 'Tsotsi' initially referred to the tight-fitting stovepipe trousers which were the central style item of the youth subculture. See Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics', pp. 54-55.
52. See The Star, 22 February 1962, 'A New Language is being Forged in the Townships', for some interesting insights on coloured influences.
53. Interviews: Magubane, Mattera.
54. Interview, Thwala.
55. Interviews: J. McMurchie (September 1992), Kambule, Diamini, Khumalo.
56. Interviews: F. Mazibuko, Thwala, 'Babes' Mbawu and B. Ngwenya (April 1989).
57. The World, 13 June 1959 and 1 August 1959.
58. The World, 27 September 1958; interview. Rev. Thape (Koetz, July 1992).
59. The World, 19 August 1962. The newspaper reported 'the quietest weekend in the township's history' following the arrests. Another Orlando gang called the Germans also emerged in the late 1950s and remained prominent well into the following decade. They controlled a territory which became known as 'Germany' (Interview S. Lebelo, September 1991).
60. Interview, S. Zikalala (October 1992). See also interview, Thape.
61. Interviews: Mattera, Magubane, Lebelo, Kheswa, Mrs Mhlambi (Koetz, December 1992), P. Moloantwa (Koetz, December 1992). I have only one reference to a gang in either township prior to 1966: a group called the Rocky Line Gang was active in 1963. See The World, 1 May 1963.
62. Both the 'Spoilers' and the 'Vikings' were names used by prominent gangs of the 1950s. Either these 1960s gangs drew on similar imagery for their names or they were deliberately evoking Johannesburg gang tradition itself. There was also a powerful 1960s coloured gang in West Native Township known as the Vikings. The gangs had no apparent connections with the 1950s Spoilers or Vikings.
63. Intermediary Archive Depot, Johannesburg, West Rand Administration Board Archive (IAD WRAB) 285/7, letter from the Juvenile Employment Officer to the Manager, NEAD, Johannesburg, 24 May 1961; The World 18 March 1961; RDM, 9 June 1961; The Star, 5 July 1961.
64. Intermediary Archive Depot, Johannesburg, West Rand Administration Board Archive (IAD WRAB) 285/7, letter from the Juvenile Employment Officer to the Manager, NEAD, Johannesburg, 24 May 1961; The World 18 March 1961; RDM, 9 June 1961; The Star, 5 July 1961.
65. Intermediary Archive Depot, Johannesburg, West Rand Administration Board Archive (IAD WRAB) 285/7, letter from the Juvenile Employment Officer to the Manager, NEAD, Johannesburg, 24 May 1961; The World 18 March 1961; RDM, 9 June 1961; The Star, 5 July 1961.
66. The World, 18 March 1961.
67. Interview, S. Tloteng (November 1991), Sister Grace, T. Makgene (Koetz, August 1992); RDM, 9 June 1961; The Star, 5 July 1961; The World, 24 October 1962 and 20 December 1962; IAD WRAB N9 (vol. 1), extracts from minutes of Southwestern Bantu Townships AB meeting, 17 January 1963.
68. Interview, S. Tloteng (November 1991), Sister Grace, T. Makgene (Koetz, August 1992); RDM, 9 June 1961; The Star, 5 July 1961; The World, 24 October 1962 and 20 December 1962; IAD WRAB N9 (vol. 1), extracts from minutes of Southwestern Bantu Townships AB meeting, 17 January 1963.
69. Interview, S. Tloteng (November 1991), Sister Grace, T. Makgene (Koetz, August 1992); RDM, 9 June 1961; The Star, 5 July 1961; The World, 24 October 1962 and 20 December 1962; IAD WRAB N9 (vol. 1), extracts from minutes of Southwestern Bantu Townships AB meeting, 17 January 1963.
70. Interview, S. Tloteng (November 1991), Sister Grace, T. Makgene (Koetz, August 1992); RDM, 9 June 1961; The Star, 5 July 1961; The World, 24 October 1962 and 20 December 1962; IAD WRAB N9 (vol. 1), extracts from minutes of Southwestern Bantu Townships AB meeting, 17 January 1963.
71. Lunn, 'Antecedents', p. 124; interview, Sister Grace.
72. Interview, L. Nkosi (Koetz, August 1992). Nkosi grew up near the Moroka shelters in the 1950s.
73. The World, 24 October 1962.
74. The World, 20 December 1962; interviews: Tloteng, T. Nkosi, Sister Grace.
75. Criminal cases of the Witwatersrand Legal Division (WLD) 570/61, Mbele and seven others, 16 May 1961.
76. Interview, Lebelo.
77. See, for example, interviews: Mofokeng, 'Oupa' Ndala (Koetz, September 1992), Nzimande, T. Nkosi. See also RDM, 5 February 1992, 'Hold onto your Hats in Gay, Soulless Soweto' by Woody Manqupu.
78. See D. Coplan, In Township Tonight! (Johannesburg, 1985), p. 163.
79. For more detail on the gangs, and the gang subculture, of the late 1960s and 1970s, see Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics', ch. 8.
80. Interviews: L. Maseko (Koetz, September 1992), Duma, Lebelo.
81. Interviews, Moloantwa, L. Nkosi. The Black Power Gang probably took its name from the American Black Power movement, which received widespread attention in local media. The militancy of the American movement, its tacit sanctioning of violent methods and the general horror it evoked amongst the white middle class, no doubt appealed to the street youth of Meadowlands. It is less likely that the gangsters had knowledge of the emergent local Black Consciousness movement which at the time was very much confined to student and intellectual circles.
82. For a detailed analysis of the Makgotla movement, see Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics', ch. 9.
83. For an exploration of the relationship between students and gangs during the 1976 Soweto uprising, see Glaser, 'Youth Culture and Politics', ch. 10.