Drum (South African magazine)

Drum is a South African family magazine mainly aimed at black readers and contains market news, entertainment and feature articles. It has two sister magazines - Huisgenoot (aimed at White and Coloured Afrikaans-speaking readers) and YOU (aimed at White English-speaking readers).

Drum was started in 1951 by Jim Bailey (James R. A. Bailey), an ex -R.A.F. pilot who was the son of the late Sir Abe Bailey a South African financier. He picked a friend whom he had known at Oxford, Anthony Sampson as editor. Later Sir Tom Hopkinson was the editor.

Sylvester Stein edited the magazine from 1955 until 1958. The deteriorating political situation resulted in him leaving for England. He was a white South African Jew which resulted in an empathy for his journalist's frustrations. His book Who killed Mr Drum? describes the life and times of Drum magazine.

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 Sophiatown, of Black jazz, the jazz opera King Kong with a Black cast, an adoption of American culture, of shebeens (illegal drinking dens) and flamboyant American style gangsters (tsotsis) with chrome-laden American cars who spoke a slang called 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".

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.

Drum's stellar cast of Black journalists included such names as Henry (Mr Drum) Nxumalo, Can Themba, Todd Matshikiza, Nat Nakasa, Lewis Nkosi and others such as William Bloke Modisane, Arthur Maimane, 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. Most of these journalists went on to publish works in their own right.

It wasn’t only the writers – the pictures were also important. The main photographer and artistic director was Jurgen Schadeberg who arrived in South Africa in 1950 after leaving a war ravaged Berlin. He became one of the rare European photographers to photograph the daily lives of Black people. He trained a generation of rising black photographers e.g. Peter Magubane.

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.

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 writes, 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.

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

Drum also encouraged fiction. Es'kia Mphahlele (the fiction editor from 1955 to 1957) encouraged and guided this. During that time over 90 short stories were published by such authors as Todd Matshikiza, Bloke Modisane, Henry Nxumalo, Casey Motsisi, Arthur Maimane (alias Mogale), Lewis Nkosi, Nat Nakasa, Can Themba and others. These stories described the people of the street; jazz musicians, gangsters, shebeen queens and con men and were written in a uniquely Sophiatown-influenced blend of English and Tsotsitaal. This creative period has been called the Sophiatown renaissance.

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. 240,000 copies were distributed each month across Africa. This was more than any other African magazine.

Drum was distributed in 8 different countries viz. Union of South Africa, Central African Federation, Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Sadly, because of the immovable force of apartheid the promise and dreams it described turned to frustration and despair. Sophiatown was bulldozed, the writers died or went overseas and Drum slowly lost its pre-emptive position and faded.

In 1984 Naspers acquired Drum Publications, the publisher of City Press, Drum and True Love & Family.

Drum claims to be the sixth largest magazine in Africa.

See also

• The Drum decade : stories from the 1950s / edited by Michael Chapman, University of Natal Press, 2001, ISBN 0-86-980985-7

• Drum : an index to Africa's leading magazine, 1951-1965, Dorothy C. Woodson, University of Winconsin-Madison, African Studies Programme, 1988, ISBN 0-94-261504-2

• The Beat of Drum : the story of a magazine that documented the rise of Africa as told by Drum's publisher, editors, contributors, and photographers, Heyns, Jacky, Ravan Press, 1982-1984 ISBN 0-62-006911-2 (the full set), ISBN 0-86-975219-7 (vol. 1)

• The Beat of Drum. Vol. 4, The Bedside book : Africa's leading magazine, editor in chief J.R.A. Bailey, editor H. Lunn, James R.A. Bailey, 1984, ISBN 0-62-006911-2

• Drum : South Africa's Black picture magazine, Creative Camera, 1984

• Drum : the making of a magazine, Jonathan Ball, ISBN 1-86-842211-9

• Drum, Anthony Sampson, Hodder & Stoughton, 1983, ISBN 0-34-033383-9

• Good-looking Corpse: World of Drum - Jazz and Gangsters, Hope and Defiance in the Townships of South Africa, Mike Nicol, Secker & Warburg, 1991, ISBN 0-43-630986-6

• Who killed Mr Drum?, Sylvester Stein ; with a foreword by Anthony Sampson, Mayibuye Books, 1999, ISBN 1-86-808451-5

• 1952 Time magazine article – South African Drumbeats

• 1959 Time magazine article - Drum Beat in Africa

• Drum a film about Drum and one of its journalists Henry Nxumalo

• Come Back, Africa, a film shot in Sophiatown in the 1950's with writing credits by Bloke Modisane and Lewis Nkosi

• Come Back, Africa, Lionel Rogosin & Peter Davis, STE Publishers, ISBN 1-919855-17-3 (The book of the film)

• SA history page on Drum

• Drum Magazine article at Worldonline

External links

• Official Magazine Website