Drum (South African magazine)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

DRUM
CategoriesFamily magazine
FrequencyWeekly
Founded1951
Final issue16 July 2020 (print)
CompanyMedia24
CountrySouth Africa
Based inJohannesburg
LanguageEnglish
Websitedrum.co.za
Part of a series on
Apartheid
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DRUM is a South African online family magazine mainly aimed at black readers, containing market news, entertainment and feature articles. It has two sister magazines:

Afrikaans-speaking readers) and YOU
(aimed at demographically diverse South African English-speaking readers of different ethnicities to inform, inspire and entertain them by offering its own brand of coverage on current events and interesting people).

In 2005 Drum was described as "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa",[1] but it is noted chiefly for its early 1950s and 1960s reportage of township life under apartheid. From July 2020 the magazine became an online magazine.[2]

History

Drum was started in 1951 as African Drum by former test cricketer and author Bob Crisp[3] and Jim Bailey, an ex-RAF. pilot, son of South African financier Sir Abe Bailey and the aviator Mary Bailey

Initially under Crisp's editorship, the magazine had a paternalistic, tribal representation of Africans,[4] but within a short time Crisp was replaced and the emphasis moved to the vibrant urban black townships.

The paper in its early years had a series of outstanding editors:

Both Sampson and Stein wrote books about their times as editor, Drum: A Venture into the New Africa (1956, republished in 2005 as Drum: the making of a magazine)[8] and Who Killed Mr Drum? (1999) respectively. Hopkinson, for his part, wrote about his experiences at the paper in his memoir, Under the Tropic.[7]

Drum's heyday in the 1950s fell between the Defiance Campaign and the tragedy at Sharpeville. This was the decade of potential Black emergence, the decade when the Freedom Charter was written and the decade when the ANC alliance launched the Defiance Campaign. The aim was to promote an equal society. The Nationalist government responded with apartheid crackdowns and treason trials.

It was also the decade of the movement to the cities, of

Tsotsitaal
.

It was a time of optimism and hope. DRUM was a "record of naivety, optimism, frustration, defiance, courage, dancing, drink, jazz, gangsters, exile and death".[9]

DRUM described the world of the urban Black; the culture, the colour, dreams, ambitions, hopes and struggles. Lewis Nkosi described DRUM's young writers as "the new African[s] cut adrift from the tribal reserve – urbanised, eager, fast-talking and brash."[10]

Peter Magubane described the atmosphere in the newsroom. "DRUM was a different home; it did not have apartheid. There was no discrimination in the offices of DRUM magazine. It was only when you left DRUM and entered the world outside of the main door that you knew you were in apartheid land. But while you were inside DRUM magazine, everyone there was a family."[11]

DRUM′s cast of black journalists included

William "Bloke" Modisane, Arthur Maimane, Stan Motjuwadi and Casey Motsisi. Together, they were known as "the DRUM Boys". This group lived by the dictum "live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse".[9] Most of these journalists went on to publish works in their own right.[12] The other journalists who worked there include Bessie Head,[13] Lionel Ngakane,[14] Richard Rive and Jenny Joseph.[15]

It was not only the writers–the pictures were also important. The main photographer and artistic director was

Alf Khumalo
was another well-known photographer on the staff.

Henry Nxumalo was the first journalist and specialised in investigative reporting. For example, he got a job on a potato farm where he exposed the exploitative conditions (almost slave-like) under which the Black labourers worked. In 1957, Nxumalo was murdered while investigating an abortion racket.[17] His story was the basis for the 2004 film Drum.[18]

Todd Matshikiza wrote witty and informed jazz articles about the burgeoning township jazz scene.

Dolly (the agony aunt) helped many a confused, young lover to get their lives back on course. The "Dear Dolly" letters were written by Dolly Rathebe, a popular actress, pin-up and singer. In reality, they were ghosted by other DRUM writers, notably Casey Motsisi.

Arthur Maimane, under the pseudonym Arthur Mogale, wrote a regular series entitled "The Chief" where he described gangster incidents he had heard about in the shebeens. Don Mattera, a leading Sophiatown gangster, took exception to this. "The gangsters were pissed off with him and there was a word out that we should wipe this guy off."[9]

The office telephonist, David Sibeko, became leader of the Pan-African Congress.[19]

DRUM also encouraged fiction.

Sophiatown renaissance.[20]

The backbone of the magazine was crime, investigative reporting, sex (especially if across the colour line) and sport. This was fleshed out by imaginative photography.

The formula worked and made for compulsive reading. Each issue of DRUM was read by up to 9 people, passed from hand to hand on the streets, in the clubs or on the trains. It became a symbol of Black urban life, and 240,000 copies were distributed each month across Africa.[21] This was more than any other African magazine.

DRUM was distributed in 8 different countries:

Tanganyika, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.[21]

Sadly, because of the immovable force of apartheid, the promise and dreams it described turned to frustration and despair. In 1955,

Sophiatown was bulldozed and the writers died or went overseas,[22] and "...The creative output of the Sophiatown Renaissance came to an end as the bulldozers rolled in...."[23]

Later ownership

By May 1965 DRUM had faded and became simply a fortnightly supplement to the Golden City Post,[24] another Bailey property. It was revived in 1968. In 1984, Naspers acquired DRUM Publications, the publisher of City Press, DRUM and True Love & Family.

The parent company of the magazine is Media24 which announced in July 2020 that the print version of the magazine ceased publication due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

References

  1. ^ Sura Wood (4 November 2005). "Drum Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 12 January 2009.[permanent dead link](subscription required)
  2. ^ a b "Media24 announces magazine and newspaper closures – more jobs affected". BusinessTech. 7 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Drum Magazine". SAHO. 18 August 2015. Retrieved 28 April 2016.
  4. ^ "A history of Drum Magazine", South African History Online
  5. ^ " Obituary, Anthony Sampson, 2004, The Guardian.
  6. ^ "Drum years" Archived 16 June 2010 at the Wayback Machine, www.sylvesterstein.com
  7. ^ a b Hopkinson, Tom (1984). Under the Tropic. London: Hutchinson.
  8. ^ ""Drum : The Making of a Magazine by Anthony Sampson"" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2012. Retrieved 26 August 2013.
  9. ^
    ISBN 0-436-30986-6
    .
  10. ^ "Lewis Nkosi". answers.com. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
  11. ^ Peter Barlow (14 August 2006). "To the point with Peter Magubane". Activate. Retrieved 3 May 2007.
  12. Bloke Modisane wrote Blame Me on History , Arthur Maimane wrote Hate No More, and a selection of Casey Motsisi
    's output appears in Casey & Co . Refer to the individual entries for the ISBN numbers.
  13. ^ Almost all of Head's important work was written in Serowe, in particular, the three Serowe novels When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru, and A Question of Power. She also wrote short stories, including the collection The Collector of Treasures.
  14. ^ Ngakane is most remembered for his 1966 short film Jemima and Johnny inspired by riots in Notting Hill.
  15. Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse
    .
  16. ^ John Cook (1 June 1997). "One-Man Truth Squad". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2 May 2007.
  17. ^ "Henry 'Mr DRUM' Nxumalo (1917–1957)". National Orders awards. 29 September 2005. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2007.
  18. ^ "DRUM (2004)", at IMDB.
  19. ^ Denis Herbstein (15 July 2005). "Arthur Maimane". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
  20. ^ Ntongela Masilela; University of California (30 April 1990). "Black South African literature from the 'Sophiatown Renaissance' to 'Black Mamba Rising': Transformations and Variations from the 1950s to the 1980s". Center for Black Studies. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Retrieved 23 May 2007.
  21. ^ a b "DRUM Beat in Africa". Time. 7 September 1959. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2007.
  22. Swaziland, Todd Matshikiza died in exile in Zambia, Nat Nakasa committed suicide in New York City and Bloke Modisane died in exile in West Germany
  23. ISBN 0-86975-050-X
    .
  24. ^ Les Switzer (ed.), South Africa's Alternative Press: voices of protest and resistance, 1880s-1960s, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Further reading

External links
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