'Tough guy, eh?': The gangster-figure in drum

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 22, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 617-632

  Fenwick, Mac ^a  

^a QUEEN S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

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EID: 2442720913     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057079608708515     Document Type: Article

References (101)

1. This failure has been remarked upon extensively; cf: A. Sampson, Drum: A Venture into the New Africa (Collins, London, 1956); P. Morris, 'The Rise and Fall of Drum', New African (October 1984), pp. 52-53; D. Maughan-Brown, 'The Anthology as Reliquary?: Ten Years of Staffrider and The Drum Decade', Current Writing, 1, 1 (October 1989), pp. 3-21.
2. This failure has been remarked upon extensively; cf: A. Sampson, Drum: A Venture into the New Africa (Collins, London, 1956); P. Morris, 'The Rise and Fall of Drum', New African (October 1984), pp. 52-53; D. Maughan-Brown, 'The Anthology as Reliquary?: Ten Years of Staffrider and The Drum Decade', Current Writing, 1, 1 (October 1989), pp. 3-21.
3. This failure has been remarked upon extensively; cf: A. Sampson, Drum: A Venture into the New Africa (Collins, London, 1956); P. Morris, 'The Rise and Fall of Drum', New African (October 1984), pp. 52-53; D. Maughan-Brown, 'The Anthology as Reliquary?: Ten Years of Staffrider and The Drum Decade', Current Writing, 1, 1 (October 1989), pp. 3-21.
4. Sampson, Drum, p. 27.
5. Ibid., p. 21.
6. Ibid., p. 30.
7. R. Nixon, 'Harlem, Hollywood and the Sophiatown Resistance', in R. Nixon, Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood (Routledge, New York, 1994), pp. 11-42; D. Coplan, In Township Tonight! (Longman, London, 1985); A. Sampson, Drum.
8. R. Nixon, 'Harlem, Hollywood and the Sophiatown Resistance', in R. Nixon, Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood (Routledge, New York, 1994), pp. 11-42; D. Coplan, In Township Tonight! (Longman, London, 1985); A. Sampson, Drum.
9. R. Nixon, 'Harlem, Hollywood and the Sophiatown Resistance', in R. Nixon, Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood (Routledge, New York, 1994), pp. 11-42; D. Coplan, In Township Tonight! (Longman, London, 1985); A. Sampson, Drum.
10. D. Maughan-Brown makes a legitimate point in his paper 'The Anthology as Reliquary?' He warns against oversimplifying the dynamic history of a heterogenous publication like Drum into a homogenous and 'illusory harmony and uniformity' (pp. 6-7). I have been acutely aware of this caveat in the construction of my own genealogy of the gangster-figure in Drum and have done my best to keep my history as protean as possible. That having been said, I believe that, in general, the three stages I identify do exist even if they defy strict categorisation.
11. B. Pitso, 'Nomoya! Of the Winds', Drum (April 1951), pp. 12-15. References to articles from Drum will be made by month, year and (where possible) page numbers, as they refer to the South African edition (not the international edition). Inconsistencies in pagination from issue to issue mean that not all articles have page numbers.
12. Ibid., p. 15.
13. D. Sentso, 'Pay Back', Drum (May 1952), p. 25.
14. Anon, 'Inside Johannesburg's Underworld', Drum (October 1951), pp. 6-11.
15. Anon, 'Birth of a Tsotsi', Drum (November 1951), pp. 9-12.
16. Anon, 'Inside, p. 5.
17. I find it interesting that even at this early stage of the gangster-figure's career he was able to win grudging respect for his visible resistance of authority.
18. Anon, p. 6.
19. Nixon, Homelands, p. 33.
20. Anon, 'Birth', p. 11.
21. Anon, 'Inside', p. 9.
22. Anon, 'Durban Exposed', Drum (July, 1952).
23. Anon, 'Crimson League', Drum (January 1953), pp. 13-15.
24. Ibid., p. 14.
25. A. Mogale, 'Confessions of an ex-Gangster', Drum (November 1953-March 1954) pp. 103-105.
26. A. Sampson, Drum, pp. 103-105.
27. Anon, 'My life in the Underworld', Drum (May 1953), p. 6.
28. A. Mogale, 'Confessions', p. 14.
29. A. Mogale, 'Hot Diamonds!', Drum (May 1953), p. 31.
30. Ibid., p. 30.
31. Nixon, Homelands, p. 12; Dorothy Driver, Drum (1951-1959) and the Spatial Configuration of Gender, in K. Darian-Smith, L. Gunner and S. Nuttall (eds), Text, Theory Space: Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia (Routledge, London, 1996), pp. 233, 238.
32. Nixon, Homelands, p. 12; Dorothy Driver, Drum (1951-1959) and the Spatial Configuration of Gender, in K. Darian-Smith, L. Gunner and S. Nuttall (eds), Text, Theory Space: Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia (Routledge, London, 1996), pp. 233, 238.
33. Nixon, Homelands, p. 12; Dorothy Driver, Drum (1951-1959) and the Spatial Configuration of Gender, in K. Darian-Smith, L. Gunner and S. Nuttall (eds), Text, Theory Space: Land, Literature and History in South Africa and Australia (Routledge, London, 1996), pp. 233, 238.
34. Nixon, Homelands, pp. 31-32; D. Mattera, Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa (Beacon, Boston, 1987), p. 102.
35. Nixon, Homelands, pp. 31-32; D. Mattera, Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa (Beacon, Boston, 1987), p. 102.
36. Sampson, Drum, pp. 101-103.
37. And in many cases of the Drum writers themselves; the men whom Nixon has dubbed 'intellectual tsotis'.
38. W. Beinart, Twentieth-Century South Africa (Oxford University Press, New York, 1994), pp. 147-148.
39. Such accounts are probably influenced by Sampson's own claim - made in 1956 - that 'we did not want Drum to become involved in political agitation, or to develop into a narrow paper of protest' (Sampson, Drum, p. 52). Such a stance was, however, a necessary one for any editor who wished to prevent political action against his publication by the government, and Sampson's comments must be taken with a grain of salt. Indeed, when one looks at the articles that appeared alongside the gangster-narratives of 1953, one finds politically-motivated works such as the exposés of the conditions in prisons and forced labour camps like 'Mr Drum Goes to Jail'.
40. E. Mpahlele, The African Image (Faber and Faber, London, 1962), pp. 30-31.
41. Ibid., p. 37.
42. D. Dodson, 'The Four Modes of Drum: Popular Fiction and Social Control in South Africa', African Studies Review, 17, 2 (1974), pp. 317-343.
43. Ibid., p. 320.
44. For more information and analysis of these gangs than is possible here, see P. Bonner, 'The Russians on the Reef 1947-1957: Urbanisation, Gang Warfare and Ethnic Mobilisation' in P. Bonner et al. (eds), Apartheid's Genesis: 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993), pp. 160-194; J. Guy and M. Thabane, 'The Ma-Rashea: A Participant's Perspective', in B Bozzoli (ed), Class, Community and Conflict (Johannesburg, 1987), pp. 436-458; and W. Beinart, 'Worker consciousness, ethnic particularism and nationalism: the experiences of a South African migrant, 1930-1960', in S. Marks and S. Trapido (eds), The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century South Africa (London, 1987), pp. 286-309.
45. For more information and analysis of these gangs than is possible here, see P. Bonner, 'The Russians on the Reef 1947-1957: Urbanisation, Gang Warfare and Ethnic Mobilisation' in P. Bonner et al. (eds), Apartheid's Genesis: 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993), pp. 160-194; J. Guy and M. Thabane, 'The Ma-Rashea: A Participant's Perspective', in B Bozzoli (ed), Class, Community and Conflict (Johannesburg, 1987), pp. 436-458; and W. Beinart, 'Worker consciousness, ethnic particularism and nationalism: the experiences of a South African migrant, 1930-1960', in S. Marks and S. Trapido (eds), The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century South Africa (London, 1987), pp. 286-309.
46. For more information and analysis of these gangs than is possible here, see P. Bonner, 'The Russians on the Reef 1947-1957: Urbanisation, Gang Warfare and Ethnic Mobilisation' in P. Bonner et al. (eds), Apartheid's Genesis: 1935-1962 (Johannesburg, 1993), pp. 160-194; J. Guy and M. Thabane, 'The Ma-Rashea: A Participant's Perspective', in B Bozzoli (ed), Class, Community and Conflict (Johannesburg, 1987), pp. 436-458; and W. Beinart, 'Worker consciousness, ethnic particularism and nationalism: the experiences of a South African migrant, 1930-1960', in S. Marks and S. Trapido (eds), The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century South Africa (London, 1987), pp. 286-309.
47. Bonner, 'Russians', pp. 167, 175.
48. Guy and Thabane, 'The Ma-Rashea', p. 448.
49. Bonner, 'Russians', pp. 179-181.
50. H. Nxumalo, Organised Gangsterism', Drum (December 1955).
51. Ibid.
52. U. Hannerz, 'Sophiatown: The View from Afar', Journal of Southern African Studies, 20, 2 (June 1994), p. 192.
53. In fact, I cannot recall a single story with a Russian gang-member, or with any gangsterism not set in an urban environment.
54. 'Sophiatown', p. 191.
55. T. Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (London, 1983), p. 102.
56. Lodge, Black Politics, pp. 101-102.
57. D. Mattera, Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa (Beacon, Boston, 1987), p. 128.
58. Lodge, Black Politics, pp. 106-107.
59. Ibid., p. 102.
60. Ibid, and P. Gready, 'The Sophiatown Writers of the Fifties: the Unreal Reality of Their World', Journal of Southern African Studies, 16, 1 (March 1990), p. 155.
61. Gready, 'Sophiatown Writers', p. 154.
62. Nixon, Homelands, p. 28.
63. Coplan, Township, p. 232.
64. Mpahlele, African Image, pp. 36-37.
65. Sampson, Drum, p. 251.
66. Nkosi explains how he and his contemporaries 'despised' Stephen Kumalo (the hero of Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country) as the 'moral' (i.e. 'White') man unable to come to terms with the city and forced, finally, to retreat to the tribalised homelands: L. Nkosi, Home and Exile, and Other Selections (London, 1965), pp. 4-6.
67. L. Nkosi, Tasks and Masks (Longman, Harlow, 1981), p. 81.
68. E. Rosow, Born to Lose: The Gangster Film in America (Oxford University Press, New York, 1978), p. 37.
69. J. Shadoian, Dreams and Dead Ends: The American Gangster/Crime Film (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1977), p. 7.
70. Coplan, Township, p. 163.
71. Sampson, Drum, p. 255.
72. Shadoian, Dreams, p. 3.
73. Quoted in Rosow, Born to Lose, p. 7.
74. What makes the appearance of these articles all the more amazing is the extent of the coverage afforded each of the profiled personalities: Matthews' story was serialised over three issues while Luthiuli and Madombo were afforded less than one page each.
75. Although the article praises this act of defiance, it is accompanied by a two page photo-spread of Madombo in modern (and revealing) dress - as opposed to the beads of a tribalised black woman - as she attracts the attention of white men, and the admonitions of a white police officer for looking so 'indecent'. 'The cop', the article says, 'would have probably said the same even if she were up to her ears in furs'. Here, the resistance or transgression exists in her being attractive to white men and the policeman's job is to police her sexuality in accordance with the Immorality Act. Again, her mimicry of a white model is what opposes the white gaze.
76. Anon, 'The Thug of the Year,' Drum (January 1960), p. 38.
77. D.McDonough, 'Chicago Press Treatment of the Gangster, 1924-1931', Illinois Historical Journal, 82, 1 (1989), p. 28.
78. Anon, 'Death of a Bad Man', Drum (April 1956).
79. Sampson, Drum, p. 105.
80. McDonough, 'Chicago', pp. 25-28.
81. Ibid., p. 25.
82. Anon, 'The 'Cop-Proof Gangster', Drum (July 1956).
83. Anon, 'Hunted Thug in Hiding', Drum (March 1957), pp. 15-17.
84. A. Mogale, 'Crime for Sale!', Drum (March 1953).
85. McDonough, 'Chicago', pp. 27-28.
86. Ibid., pp. 30-32.
87. Anon, 'South Africa's Man of the Year', Drum.
88. Rosow, Born to Lose, p. 23.
89. Nkosi, Home and Exile, p. 6.
90. Ibid., p. 13.
91. Ibid., p. 131.
92. Mpahlele, African Image, p. 169.
93. Ibid., p. 171.
94. Ibid., p. 187.
95. Mpahlele, African Image, p. 187.
96. Rosow, Born to Lose, p. 6.
97. Shadoian, Dreams, p. 9.
98. Nixon, Homelands, p. 31.
99. Mpahlele, African Image, p. 192.
100. Ibid., p. 226. In his review of Mphalele's book, Nkosi says that he finds the affirmation of this 'uncommitted African identity' to be 'sometimes too joyous an affirmation' (Home, p. 129), an assessment with which I am forced to agree.
101. Nkosi, Home and Exile, p. 33.