The Historical Contribution of Black Musicians to Orchestral Classical Music around Johannesburg and the Implications for Cultural Policy Thesis Presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Policy and Management University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg Shadrack Bokaba Supervisor: Professor Brett Pyper 31 July 2023 ii Declaration I, Shadrack Bokaba, declare this thesis is my own unaided work. It is being submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Policy and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any degree or examination at any other university. _______________________ Shadrack Bokaba 31 July 2023 iii Acknowledgements Everyone who has expressed interest in the topic and given practical assistance to me, including agreeing to participate in the interviews, especially the people who have lived part of the history I am describing in the following chapters. Please do know that you have made an important contribution, and for that, I will forever be grateful! To my supervisor, Professor Brett Pyper, thank you so much for your patience, sometimes during very difficult times, and for your invaluable insights and incisive comments that have helped determine the direction of the research throughout this long process. To my wife and friend Buhle, it is time we take that long holiday I promised! Thank you for your encouragement, support and reading the many versions, especially in the final stages of the project. To my daughters, Aziza Botlhale and Marang Imara, thank you for the pictures and your interest and encouragement. iv Abbreviations ACTAG Arts and Culture Task Group ACOSA African Cultural Organisation of South Africa ANC African National Congress APLA Azanian People’s Liberation Army AU African Union AYE African Youth Ensemble BB Broederbond BMSC Bantu Men’s Social Centre CAPAB Cape Performing Arts Board CPO Cape Philharmonic Orchestra DAC Department of Arts and Culture DACST Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology DOCC Donaldson Orlando Community Centre DSAC Department of Sport, Arts and Culture JBMF Johannesburg Bantu Music Festival JPO Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra JSO Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra KZNPO KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra MNPO Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra NAC National Arts Council NAPAC Natal Performing Arts Council NCO National Chamber Orchestra NFVF National Film and Video Foundation NHC National Heritage Council NPO National Philharmonic Orchestra of South Africa v NSO National Symphony Orchestra OAU Organisation of African Unity PAC Pan-Africanist Congress PACs Performing Arts Councils PACOFS Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State PACT Performing Arts Council of Transvaal RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme RWP Revised White Paper on Arts, Culture and heritage adopted by South Africa’s Parliament in 2019 SABC South African Broadcasting Corporation SAMAP South African Music Archive Project (at the University of KwaZulu-Natal) SAMET South African Music Education Trust SANNC South African Native National Congress TATA Transvaal African Teachers’ Association UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation WITS University of the Witwatersrand WP White Paper on Arts, Culture and heritage (1996) WRAB West Rand Administration Board vi Table of Contents Chapter 1 .............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Introduction and literature Review ..................................................................................... 1 1.2. A Brief History of Orchestral Performances in Black Townships ........................................ 10 1.3. The popularity of brass instruments in townships ............................................................. 16 1.4. Research Methodology ...................................................................................................... 17 Chapter 2 ............................................................................................................................................ 22 2.1. The roots of orchestral music in Black townships .............................................................. 22 2.2. New Africans at work ......................................................................................................... 25 2.3. The Eastern Cape’s children’s orchestra ............................................................................ 29 2.4. Up North in the Transvaal .................................................................................................. 30 2.5. Bantu Men’s Social Centre ................................................................................................. 32 2.6. Jubilee Social Centre .......................................................................................................... 33 2.7. Johannesburg Bantu Music Festival ................................................................................... 35 2.8. The influence of the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra and Joseph Trauneck ............... 36 Chapter 3 ............................................................................................................................................ 40 The influence of educators from Orlando High School in Soweto in Orchestral music ....................... 40 3.1. The origins of Orlando High School.................................................................................... 40 3.2. Influence beyond the classroom ........................................................................................ 43 3.3. The Syndicate for African Artists Joins Campaigns for Universal Education ...................... 47 3.4. Khabi Mngoma joins the Non-European Affairs Department (NEAD) ............................... 50 3.5. Rapid Expansion into the Township ................................................................................... 55 Chapter 4 ............................................................................................................................................ 60 Playing Orchestral Duels with Apartheid ............................................................................................ 60 4.1. Black South Africa ............................................................................................................. 60 4.2. Maintaining Apartheid ....................................................................................................... 68 4.3. Lucas Mangope in Bophuthatswana: Dog of the Boers or Orchestral Messiah? ............... 74 Chapter 5 ............................................................................................................................................ 83 Arts and Culture Policies in Post-Apartheid South Africa .................................................................... 83 5.1. Anticipating a rainbow nation: the establishment of the South African Music Education Trust 86 5.2. The Disbanding of Bophuthatswana Arts........................................................................... 89 5.3. The restructuring of Performing Arts Councils .................................................................. 90 5.4. The demise of the National Symphony Orchestra at the SABC .......................................... 92 vii 5.5. The rise of KwaZulu-Natal .................................................................................................. 93 5.6. Efforts to establish a permanent orchestra for Gauteng ................................................... 98 5.7. Orchestral manoeuvres in the national government policy ............................................ 102 5.8. Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra ........................................................................ 105 Chapter 6 .......................................................................................................................................... 109 6.1. Conclusion and recommendations .................................................................................. 109 6.2. The Arm’s Length funding principle and orchestral funding ............................................ 114 6.3. What is the current status of the ‘Arm’s Length’ Principle? ............................................ 120 Annexure A: Some of the Musical Milestones Covered in the Thesis ............................................... 122 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................................... 124 Appendix A: Ethical Clearance .......................................................................................................... 134 Appendix B: Interviewees ................................................................................................................. 135 viii Annexures Annexure A: Musical milestones covered in the thesis Tables Table 1: NAC Orchestral Funding 2007 – 2020 Table 2: Further analysis of orchestral funding of the regional orchestras Table 3: Breakdown of the grant funding programme by Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra Figures Figure 1: From left to right: Shadrack Bokaba (violin), Patrick Motsa (violin), Arthur Matlhatsi (violin) and Lebogang Nkwane (cello), performing African music on Western orchestral instruments for villagers in the North West Province. Figure 2: Part of the programme which featured the Jubilee Players (sometimes referred to as the Ionian Orchestra) accompanying Khabi Mngoma’s choir in August 1964. Figure 3 Concert programme of the South African National Youth Orchestra from the 1973 orchestral course. Figure 4.1: The South African National Youth Orchestra performing in what appears to be an alternative concert venue in Barcelona in 1978. Figure 4.2: Young musicians from Bophuthatswana, seen with their peers at the National orchestral course in Bloemfontein, 1989. Figure 4.3: The author, Shadrack Bokaba on the violin (left), together with Bernard Madumo (right), in rehearsal Figure 4.4: Part of the learners from Ga-Rankuwa Youth Orchestra, at times referred to as the Odi Youth Strings Orchestra, in rehearsal with the youth from Pretoria Youth Orchestra in the late 1980s Figure 5.1: SAMET Chairperson Michael Hankinson, Minister Pallo Jordan, SAMET CEO Shadrack Bokaba, at the annual ‘SAMET Night of Excellence’ concert, held at the Linder Auditorium 2007 – 2009. ix Figure 5.2: The JPO Academy Orchestra performing at the Linder Auditorium, Johannesburg. x Abstract This study documents the historical contribution of black musicians to classical music in Johannesburg. It places the spotlight on South Africa’s cultural policy (explicitly or implicitly) over the last century and provides ongoing reflections on this period. The thesis analyses the conditions, within and beyond the prevailing policy that enabled black orchestral musicians to practice this art form. By exploring the complex origins of these practices, the study suggests that the dichotomous thinking about culture as either Eurocentric or Afro- centric may be misplaced due to the possibility that Western classical music may have become part of black South African cultural life as a result of having been translated, transferred, hybridised or acculturated. In addition, the study places the government’s arm’s length funding model under scrutiny and finds this approach continues to be applied inconsistently since it was first presented in the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage (1996). As both a classical musician and orchestral administrator, the author has lived part of the history described in the thesis and, through analysis, attempts to establish a dialogue between professional experience and what scholarly reflection can do to that practice. He presents narratives through insider lenses, with carefully selected interviewees, and interrogates situations and sites over a century-long period of the history of black orchestral music practice in South Africa. Page 1 of 146 Chapter 1 Introduction and Literature Review South Africa’s imported art forms include European classical music, which has formed part of the tools used to suppress black cultures during the colonial and apartheid eras in South Africa and the African continent. As Riva (2016) points out, the arrival of the European settlers on the African continent came with an image of Africa that supported their political and economic interests. Quoting Said (1979), Riva states that Europeans constructed a collective image of the whole African continent as a counterpart to Europe, meaning ‘uncivilised’, ‘heathen’, ‘wild’ and ‘animalistic’ (Riva, 2016: 130). The term ‘Africa’ was deployed and used to not differentiate between the many cultures in sub-Saharan Africa and its regions of West, East and Southern Africa, or the so-called ‘Black Africa’. According to Riva (2016), this was part of a colonial strategy that could be used to name all the music from ‘Black Africa’ as African music and to project the cultures of these regions collectively as the whole continent (Riva, 2016: 130). Quoting Radano and Olaniyan (2016), Riva pointed to how pre-colonial musical practices in occupied African territories, including in sub- Saharan Africa, were marginalised, forbidden or destroyed, supported by the anthropological and ethnographic sciences at the time, that constructed the idea of binary divisions of ‘uncivilised’ and ‘ahistorical’ in terms of African music. European music was introduced as ‘civilised’ within the missions and colonial armies. According to Riva (2016), Western classical music remained ‘white music’ in all settlers’ colonies, including South Africa (Riva, 2016: 131). The advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994 was thus seen as a unique opportunity that, for the first time in the history of the country, all arts and culture practitioners would have the right to participate in creating public policy and structures directly affecting their lives and livelihoods, and the quality of life in the community at large (White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage, 1996). This led to the establishment of the Arts and Culture Task Group (ACTAG), which comprised practitioners, educators and administrators, embarking on consultative and writing Page 2 of 146 processes, which produced the draft report that formed the basis for the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage (1996). This consultative process was not without its problems. One of the challenges was the persistent tensions around the Eurocentric versus the Afro-centric debate, which at some point, led to the Director-General in the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST), Roger Jardine, to comment in an interview in The Argus (Tonight) on 12 June 1995, that this debate was counter-productive because South Africa’s cultural identity included both Eurocentric and Afro-centric art forms (Williams, 1996). All forms of culture were equally important for Jardine, including access, as everyone had the right to freedom of expression. The final draft of the White Paper (1996) defined the arts as all forms and traditions of dance, drama, music, music theatre, visual arts, crafts, design, and written and oral literature, as it declared that all these arts serve as a means for individual and collective expression through performance, execution, presentation, exhibition, transmission and study (White Paper, 1996, Chapter1). This definition of arts included Western European music, as the White Paper (1996) defined South African heritage as the total of works of art, literature and music, oral traditions, among other art forms, and their documentation, which provides the basis for shared culture and creativity in the arts. Indeed, the values on which the White Paper (1996) is based are derived from the country’s Bill of Rights, including paragraph 16, which states that ‘everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of artistic creativity’, and similarly, paragraph 30 states that everyone has the right to use the language and to participate in the cultural life of their choice (WP, 1996, Chapter 1). Throughout the White Paper (1996), there is great emphasis on African traditions. However, these should be understood in the Southern African context, as African traditions cover all regions on the continent, and African culture, in particular, is not homogenous. The term ‘African music’ should be understood to mean music from Southern Africa. The White Paper attempted to address some issues related to imported Western arts which, it stated, were absorbing 46% of South Africa’s total budget for the arts. The apartheid Page 3 of 146 government was committed to advancing Afrikaner nationalism and securing and maintaining control over cultural institutions. The government funded the four Provincial Arts Councils (PACs) to achieve this. These were the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB), now known as Artscape, the Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State (PACOFS), the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal (PACT), now renamed as the South African State Theatre and the Natal Performing Arts Council (NAPAC) currently named the Playhouse. Additionally, there was the Performing Arts Council of Bophuthatswana1, to which government funds were also allocated. Each of these PACs had its resident orchestra, with the founding of the Natal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1983 attached to NAPAC; PACT Orchestra founded in 1963 and attached to PACT two years later in 1965; the Free State Symphony Orchestra founded in 1974 as a collaborative effort between PACOFS, the University of the Orange Free State and the Free State Education Department; the Cape Town orchestras, including the Cape Town Municipal Orchestra, founded in 1914 and CAPAB Orchestra attached to CAPAB, which together merged in 1997 to form the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. The SABC has had its own studio orchestra in Johannesburg since 1923. When the Municipal Orchestra of the City of Johannesburg was disbanded in 1954, its musicians were incorporated into the newly formed National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) under the auspices of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Until the early 1990s, these orchestras had to contribute to advancing the cultural agenda of the apartheid government. They were expected to present special performances on festive occasions in celebration of the White supremacist regime, undertake tours to perform for racially circumscribed and segregated audiences, including schools and town halls, invite great international soloists and conductors, and generally focus on providing European high culture, including supporting ballet and opera. Realising that just under 50% of the available funding was still being absorbed by Western arts after 1996 triggered a significant restructuring of the funding environment, negatively impacting these orchestras and other imported art forms dependent on government funding. The new funding model proposed by the White Paper (1996) was to be an ‘arm’s length’ approach which was seen as fundamental to freedom of expression, and funding 1 Bophuthatswana was designated as a ‘homeland’ for Setswana speaking South Africans, but was incorporated into South Africa in 1994. Page 4 of 146 was to be allocated to the sectors fairly and equitably through the National Arts Council (NAC). According to Chartrand and McCaughey (1989), this public policy is applied in law, politics and economics in most Western societies, and the principle is implicit in the constitutional separation of powers between the judiciary, executive and legislative branches of government. It is a crucial finding of the thesis that, since 1997, the South African government has not applied this principle consistently, and the status of the arm’s length funding model is, at this stage, questionable. The development of human resources has been one of the critical objectives of the White Paper (1996), which set out to train practitioners, administrators, and educators, as it said that this kind of training was generally not available in the education system designed for Black people before 1994. According to the WP (1996), this kind of training could create more performing arts work and exhibition opportunities for Black artists. This formed part of the NAC’s mandate, which funds bursaries and training programmes. Lastly, the WP (1996) aimed to provide and maintain arts infrastructure in Black communities, as existing infrastructure heavily favoured the cities of the previous four provinces, where the PACs are located, rather than the ‘homelands’. By ‘homelands’, the White Paper referred to areas where the majority of the Black population was moved by the apartheid government, preventing them from living in the urban areas. Bophuthatswana was the only homeland with an arts council and Mmabana community arts and sports facilities. These initial policy shifts of 1996 appear to have affected selected orchestras of Bophuthatswana, Free State, Pretoria and Johannesburg. The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Johannesburg was funded through the SABC2, and this funding was discontinued in April 1997. In defence of their decision to close the NSO, the government, through the then Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST) Baldwin Sipho ‘Ben’ Ngubane, announced in the 1998 budget speech that the country’s many other cultures and forms of artistic expression would benefit from these budget cuts and would at last be given equal 2 Article published by the Guardian Newspaper titled ‘Orchestra’s demise strikes sour note in new South Africa’ by Chris McGreal can be accessed online at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/jan/29/chrismcgreal Page 5 of 146 opportunity3. In an article published in the Mail & Guardian weeks after the announcement to cut the NSO’s budget, Brett Pyper (1997) made interesting arguments for and against maintaining funding for the NSO. On the positive side, Pyper noted the orchestra engaged with African choral music through the various choral concert initiatives where the NSO provided orchestral accompaniment. These initiatives were a precursor to renowned composer Mzilikazi Khumalo’s epic work, Ushaka, which the NSO recorded in 1996. On the other hand, Pyper reminded his readers about the NSO’s lack of transformation in terms of mainstream concerts, which were still targeted at a minority of the population4. According to the government, the restructuring in orchestral spending aimed to encourage greater participation in the arts, specifically within historically marginalised communities, by providing new funding arrangements and institutional frameworks. However, what was not considered was the possibility that some of these imported art forms, including orchestral music, may have become part of Black South African cultural life due to having been translated, transformed, hybridised or acculturated. Prof Khabi Vivian Mngoma (1922 – 1999), who studied and taught Western classical music for decades, offered some insight into why classical music was being translated, transformed or indigenised. In ‘The Teaching of Music South Africa’ (Mngoma, 1987: 199), he suggested that various black groups in South Africa already possessed a rich musical culture as they had learnt Western classical, folk and popular music and had tendencies to indigenise ‘Western musical traits’. He suggested that the indigenisation of Western culture was bound to happen. On its own, Western culture did not meet, serve or satisfy the cultural needs and criteria of an African student, and it tended to inhibit musical expression, growth and experience, eventually alienating the student from society. Mngoma argued it was critical that, before one can structure effective music education programmes, the culture and nature of a people must be understood. When this article was published, Mngoma was teaching at the University of Zululand in the Department of Music. In the article, he stressed the significance of adopting an ‘androgenic’,’pedagogic approach to 3 Article titled ‘Arts abroad: an orchestra falls silent as South Africa struggles on’, published on 1 February 2000 in the New York Times and written by Henri E. Cauvin, can be accessed online at https://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/01/arts-abroad-an-orchestra-falls-silent-as-south-africa-struggles-on.html 4 Article by Brett Pyper was published by Mail & Guardian on 17 June 1997 and titled ‘Will the Band Play On?’ Article can be accessed online at https://mg.co.za/article/1997-01-17-will-the-band-play-on/ Page 6 of 146 teaching music in South Africa. By ‘androgenic’, Mngoma was referring to the importance of learning both Western and African genres, not one or the other. The fourth and final draft of South Africa’s revised White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage,5 approved by Parliament in 2019,6 provides the clearest articulation of South Africa’s post-apartheid cultural policy. The thinking behind the revision of the White Paper (1996)7 was to consolidate the democratic dispensation established for the sector in 1996, reposition it to address its shortcomings effectively and integrate it into national policies and strategies for artistic, cultural, social, and economic development8. According to the Department of Arts and Culture’s presentation to Parliament on 4th December 2018, these shortcomings included that the WP did not go far enough to address the transformation of arts and culture institutions and structures. As a result, redress, redistribution and access were still problems in the new dispensation. In the presentation, the funding and finance models were blamed as they were said to be not flexible enough. As a result, a new proposal was made to reconfigure the arts, culture and heritage dispensation and policies underpinning it for optimal performance. New proposals included the merger of the NAC and another agency of the Department of Arts and Culture, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), to establish the South African National Arts and Audiovisual Council. The RWP acknowledges the country’s musical heritage, which it says includes imported Western, Asian and African or indigenous music practices. However, it states that it intends to be African-centred, following earlier similar Afrocentric policies and these ‘can be traced back to African anti-colonial struggles in which the role of African culture was a source of pride, innovation and resistance to colonialism and the imposition of Western art’ (RWP, 2019:15). Following the original WP (1996), the RWP recognises the diversity of South Africa’s people and, as a result, has developed tools to foster inclusiveness. This strategy was proposed in 5 Hereafter referred to as the RWP, which can be accessed online at the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) at www.dac.gov.za/content/revised-white-paper-arts-culture-and-heritage-fourth-draft-0 6 The approval was announced by the DSAC at their meeting with the portfolio committee on Sport, Arts and Culture which can be accessed online through the parliament monitoring group at https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/34013 7 Hereafter referred to as the WP and which can be accessed online at the DSAC at www.dac.gov.za/content/white-paper-arts-culture-and-heritage. 8 Presentation by the DSAC to the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture and Heritage took place on 4 December 2018, and can be viewed online at static.pmg.org.za/181204revised_paper.pptx. Page 7 of 146 line with the UNESCO Declaration on Cultural Diversity (2001) and the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), and is concerned with the inherent need for the recognition of equal dignity of, and respect for, all cultures of persons belonging to minorities and of indigenous peoples (RWP, 2019:9). This policy position, therefore, agrees with Pyykkonen (2012)9, who proposes that cultural diversity is innate, as it is part of human nature, basic rights and equal opportunities for socioeconomic development, and should be aimed at promoting and striving for developing equality and democracy. Critical to this study, the RWP proposed establishing new national theatre, dance and orchestral companies in cities and rural communities to be cross-subsidised by national, provincial, metro and local funding. The implementation and results of these objectives are discussed in later chapters. A poly-epistemic approach recognising cultural diversity allows the country to place African cultural systems at the centre while keeping other art-forms alive. Matarasso and Landry (1999) proposed a policy-making process best described by using the analogy of ‘a tightrope walker who is always conscious of the two ends of his balancing pole, continually making slight adjustments to preserve that elusive point of balance’ (Matarasso & Landry, 1999:7). The dichotomous way of thinking about culture is thus problematic against the backdrop of South Africa, given that it is not a straightforward case of Euro- or Afrocentric, monoculture or cultural diversity. The justified pursuit of decolonialism should avoid reproducing essentialised, dichotomised understanding of culture that was, ironically, at the heart of colonial thinking and administration. In other words, one should recognise that Western classical music has provided a platform for interrogating and reclaiming colonial legacies from African epistemological perspectives in certain places at particular moments. These particular moments in history include the launch of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) in 1912, which was later renamed the African National Congress (ANC), 9 Pyykkonen’s article titled UNESCO and cultural diversity: democratisation, commodification or governmentalisationof culture? is published in the International Jourrnal of Culture, Vol.18, 2012-Issue 5: Cultural Policy and Democracy and can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/10286632.2012.718914. Page 8 of 146 where the works of African composers John Knox Bokwe and Enoch Sontonga were used for the opening and closing ceremonies (Meli, 1988:25). In terms of professional orchestras, this research came at a time when the government was implementing aspects of the RWP, which placed the orchestral sector in the spotlight. In his 2019 budget speech, former Minister of Finance, Tito Titus Mboweni, announced a new national orchestra and emphasised that South Africa’s public finance choices should signal an intention to preserve, enhance and grow the diversity of cultural offerings. He announced that his department was considering proposals for developing a new national theatre and museum. Also, he would consider financial support for the National Archives, a national orchestra and a ballet troupe.10 The Minister of Arts and Culture may, in terms of the Culture and Promotions Act (1983, amended 1998), acquire, develop and maintain movable and immovable property, award bursaries and make grants to undertake study tours to foreign countries, establish, launch or finance any organisation or project likely to have an impact throughout the country or assist non-formal community-based arts education projects, among other objectives to develop, promote and achieve the aspirations outlined in terms of arts and culture in the Republic. Another Act that may be relevant in the situation is the Cultural Institutions Act of 1998, in terms of which the Minister of Arts and Culture, in consultation with the Minister of Finance, may authorise payment of subsidies to declared cultural institutions, provide for the establishment of certain institutions under the control of councils, establish a national museum division and provide for matters connected and related to the mandate. The former finance minister, therefore, seemed to act beyond his mandate when he announced a new orchestra, as the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) had not yet done so. In addition, if the DSAC intended to establish an orchestra, it would need to do it in terms of the legal prescripts above, including declaring the proposed orchestra as a cultural institution in terms of the Cultural Institutions Act (1998) or applying the Cultural 10 Former Minister Tito Mboweni’s 2019 budget speech can be accessed online at https://www.gov.za/af/node/786807. Page 9 of 146 Promotions Act to facilitate the flow of funds to the orchestra. This did not seem to be the case, as the minister did not cite any of the above Acts in his announcement. Instead, he appeared to rely on the objectives of the RWP, which are not sufficient as the White Paper is not an Act of Parliament but rather a broad statement of government policy. In addition, there are usually extensive public consultations that precede decisions, such as establishing new national orchestras. However, former Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) Emmanuel Nkosinathi ‘Nathi’ Mthethwa questionably went ahead by appointing Bongani Tembe to head the new organisation. This was concerning, as Tembe was already in charge of two regional orchestras in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Johannesburg. This move by the government effectively placed three major orchestras under the control of one person. Despite the public outcry, the Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra was launched on 14 July 2021 with a promise to contribute to a socially cohesive society with a common national identity, create and preserve music that reflects the country’s heritage, find and train young musicians, and promote the development of orchestral music, among other reported objectives.11 Furthermore, the new national orchestra promised to undertake pioneering work by finding and training black artists and placing them in critical positions. The RWP found that the transformation of arts and culture institutions and structures had been lacking in the new dispensation, including in professional orchestras, which continued to be dominated by white musicians, so finding black players was thus an important statement to make. The government made an initial investment of over R54 million in the first year to support this project without explaining how the orchestra would be sustained in the future or indicating how the high standards of performance were to be achieved. The model appears to be of players randomly invited without auditions, and this has raised questions about how the highest standards of orchestral playing are to be achieved if the same musicians will not be playing together all the time. As the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra pointed out in 11 Article titled ‘Mzansi National Philharmonic Orchestra will Champion SA’s Vibrant and Diverse Communities’ authored by L Engelbrecht published by News24 and available online at https://www.news24.com/arts/mzansi-national-philharmonic-orchestra-will-champion-sas-vibrant--and- diverse-communities. Page 10 of 146 their rebuttal12 of the new ensemble, ‘pick-up’ orchestras notoriously lack these standards, which may lead to international soloists and conductors being reluctant to perform in South Africa, something that may impact the ability of the regional orchestras to attract top international talent. Lastly, the CPO states that they spend a third of their budget on teaching and mentoring young musicians through their grassroots teaching project, Masidlale, which includes an academy for young musicians, two youth orchestras and several smaller ensembles. Hundreds of learners will be affected if this system is consistently interrupted by mentors and teachers being on national orchestra tours. 1.2 A Brief History of Orchestral Performances in Black Townships It is necessary to go through the less well-known history of orchestral music in black communities, which remains understudied and largely undocumented, to understand South Africa’s cultural policy regarding orchestras, including the accompanying persistent Euro- and Afrocentric debates. Thankfully, some of the significant cultural developments that occurred from the 1930s to the 1950s were captured by Walter Nhlapo. Nhlapo was one of the prominent writers working for the Bantu World, a South African weekly newspaper published from 1932–1955 targeting the black middle-class elite13. The paper was founded by white liberals, including Bertram Paver, JD Rheinallt-Jones and James Howard Pim – who was a councillor in the city of Johannesburg and had the settlement of Pimville, which became part of Soweto, named after him. Nhlapo had a regular column titled Spotlight on Social Events. From this column, for example, the first reported classical concert featuring black and white artists together on stage was documented (more on this event in the second chapter). Another example of emblematic testimony that points to a black orchestral legacy in Johannesburg is captured in the book Trevor Huddleston: A Life by Robin Denniston (1999). 12 Cape Philharmonic’s press release (in the author’s possession) accompanied by media interviews were widley quoted in various publications including an article by Gill Gifford ‘Akin to Orchestra Capture – Mthethwa Plan gets a Public Panning’ published by Timeslive on 16 July 2022 accessible at timeslive.co.za and an article by Victoria O’Regan titled ‘Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’, published on 10 July 2022 in the Daily Maverick, accessible at dailymaverick.co.za. 13 Wits Research Archives available online at www.historicalpapers-atom.wits.ac.za. http://www.historicalpapers-atom.wits.ac.za/ Page 11 of 146 In the book, Archbishop Desmond Tutu recalled his first experience with classical music in Sophiatown, a diverse township outside Johannesburg where black people were allowed to buy land before 1913. This first concert featured internationally acclaimed virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin. According to Tutu, several eminent artists came to Sophiatown from time to time at the invitation of Father Huddleston, whose office was at 74 Meyer Street, where he was based for his pastoral work (Denniston, 1999: 270). A hitherto largely invisible black orchestral legacy still needs to be uncovered. The project has also benefitted from earlier research by Pamela Tancsik (2009). She conducted post-doctoral research on Joseph Trauneck (1898–1975) as part of the South African Music Archive Project (SAMAP). Tancsik’s research (2009)14 indicates that the South African cultural scene partly benefitted from the ascension of Adolf Hitler to power in 1933, which led many persecuted Jewish musicians to emigrate from Europe to South Africa, especially to Johannesburg. As Tancsik (2009) found out, this movement of musicians to Africa ultimately served to increase the cultural activities in the country. Based on their experiences of persecution in Nazi Europe, these Jewish immigrant musicians understood the potential human rights abuses that could emerge from colonialism and apartheid and their impact. Therefore, many chose to ignore the colonial and apartheid laws from the 1940s and took risks to give music lessons to African learners. SAMAP research indicates one of the prominent teachers and pioneers was the Jewish conductor Joseph Trauneck, who was in South Africa for 21 years from 1934– 1955. Trauneck’s own lived experience in Nazi Germany, where he lost his job as a musical director under Nazi policies, propelled his involvement and participation in the musical life of the townships. According to Tancsik, this resulted in him having to oppose the racially exclusive policies of the South African Nationalist government by sheer participation. Trauneck not only gave symphonic concerts in Sophiatown with his Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra (JSO), but as it will be shown, he was passionate about music education. One of the beneficiaries of his teachings was Khabi Mngoma, who took conducting and keyboard lessons with Trauneck, among other music subjects. Mngoma’s interest in the orchestra may have been due to his involvement with choirs, which often required accompaniment. In Inge Mari Burger’s doctoral thesis titled The Life and Work of Khabi Mngoma (1992), she 14 Tancsik’s research is titled Tracing Joseph Trauneck: The Wanderings of a Persecuted Man, it is published in the journal, Fontes Artis Musicae, 56 (2),2 115-137 and accessible online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/23512559. It is part of the South African Music Archive Project at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Page 12 of 146 writes about Mngoma’s numerous initiatives and experiments with orchestral ensembles. Some of Mngoma’s work continues today through his son, the cellist Lindumuzi ‘Linda’ Mngoma and his grandchildren, Tshepo Mngoma (violinist) and Sibongile Mngoma (opera singer). Against the historical background described above, this research explores the relationship between policy and practice, specifically concerning black musicians’ practice of classical music. The study addresses the following questions:  What is the place, in policy and practice, of classical music in the democratic dispensation of South Africa?  What are the implications of this for cultural policy? I analysed the conditions, within and beyond prevailing policy that enabled black orchestral musicians to practice this art form to answer these questions. I reviewed archival sources and interviewed several practising professionals, including policymakers, arts administrators, orchestral musicians, writers, and academics. Veronica Franke (2012) observed that critical literature on developing orchestral music in South Africa is limited and relatively sparse. As was discovered, so too is the history of black orchestral musicians. It is rather timely that this research began when South Africa’s national government was reviewing its White Paper on Arts and Culture and is concluding amid controversy about establishing a new ‘national’ orchestra. The issues that this research project addressed were not only relevant but emphasised areas where current policy appears lacking. None of the studies referred to, including studies in the histories of orchestral and broader South African music documented before this work, considered the policy dimensions of the histories they recount. Examples include the work by Veit Erlmann titled African Stars (1991). Erlmann’s work does, however, serve to contribute to a better understanding of the history of isicathamiya, the evolution of Zulu music and dance, and the life of Reuben T Caluza, who is credited as being the first black ragtime composer. One of Erlmann’s most important contributions is his reconstruction of the 1890s concert tours of the Afro-American vocal Page 13 of 146 group Orpheus M McAdoo and the Virginia Jubilee Singers. Erlmann (1991) was, to an extent, able to link the evolution of black performance to the surge in economic and racial segregation of South African society. However, no orchestral music was covered in this contribution, but attempts were made in his subsequent books on these topics. Similarly, the pioneering work done by David B Coplan titled In Township Tonight (1985; 2007) is another example which explores more than three centuries of diverse histories of South Africa’s black popular culture. However, the ‘first orchestra’ that Coplan presents in his research is fundamentally different to that being explored in this work. The orchestra Coplan refers to is the slave orchestra owned by the Dutch Governor in the Cape from 1676. It drew its players from enslaved Africans and enslaved people from the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia (Coplan, 1985; 2007). This orchestra used indigenous and locally made instruments fashioned on European models to perform folk music. The term ‘orchestra’ in this research, however, refers to a standard Western classical orchestra consisting of four families, namely strings (violins, violas, cellos, and basses), winds (flutes, clarinet, bassoon and oboe), brass and percussion instruments. The history recounted in the thesis seldom engages directly with indigenous musical practices. Michael Moerane, Khabi Mngoma, Michael Masote, and others were musically conservative, with composer and choral conductor Mzilikazi Khumalo arguably one of the most ‘indigenous’ in his approach. Even then, he worked almost exclusively with Western orchestral instruments and principles. However, it is interesting to note how enslaved musicians in the Cape Governor’s orchestra were open to adapting or adopting newly discovered instruments. According to Coplan (1985; 2007), this can be seen as an indirect extension of the principles of vocal music in the African community. The last example of pioneering studies relevant to this project is Cockburn’s (2008), who attempted to document the history of the performance of Handel’s Messiah in South Africa. This included performances in some of Johannesburg’s black townships, including Sophiatown’s first classical concert, presented in October 1944 and featuring the JSO led by Trauneck (Cockburn, 2008: 182-190). This is significant because such performances, as will be shown, inspired some in the audience to pursue careers in orchestral music. These included music educator and violinist Michael Matlhaela Masote, Page 14 of 146 who has helped spread the popularity of orchestral music by, among others, founding the Soweto Youth Orchestra in 1965 and translating Handel’s Messiah into nine South African languages, known as the ‘Black Messiah’ in 1983. Masote established the Mmabatho Youth Orchestra in Bophuthatswana in the 1980s. It was possible to understand how and why formal music education initiatives focused on orchestral music were introduced by following the work of Zephania Mothopeng, Khabi Mngoma and Lucas Makhema, who was also Trauneck’s township contact. The study provided an opportunity to document the long legacy of black orchestral practice in and around Johannesburg that seems invisible to policymakers. However, these practices in Johannesburg were fundamentally different to those of the Cape Governor’s orchestra described above, as the Johannesburg one consisted of traditional Western orchestral instruments. However, the instruments were used not only to play European repertoire but, at times, to perform arrangements of pre-existing traditional folk and African choral music and original African compositions for orchestra, thus continuing the indigenisation process which formed part of African classical music. According to Cockburn, black performances of classical music represented cultures concerning which the emerging African elite defined themselves, to which they aspired, mattered and within which they sought recognition. In political terms, Cockburn argues that these performances could, to reaffirm the performer, be used to support or to subvert an established political order and to reinforce or challenge patterns of domination. The arguments put forward by Cockburn, Coplan, Erlmann and others are not new but instead form part of a long historiography white researchers have dominated until recently. Perhaps it is time that history is explored, told, and understood from new perspectives, experiences, topics and works with distinctive features (Thompson, 2000: vi- xvi). It is important to note that, as it will be presented, Cockburn, Coplan, and Erlmann’s positioning of black thought and history varies with the interviewee’s thinking. It should also be noted that white researchers, including Cockburn, Coplan and Erlmann, always had access to resources around knowledge production. Few black people were afforded legitimacy in Page 15 of 146 documenting their histories due to the historical political power dynamics of access to resources around knowledge production. It was against this background that it became necessary to find out from those who considered themselves cultural activists what they thought about the place of African adoptions or appropriations of Western classical culture (whether music, theatre or anything else) by black South African artists and audiences, within the context of the policy advances during the struggle and since 1994. It was essential to establish if these practices were deliberately overlooked or de-prioritised. Figure 1: From left to right: Shadrack Bokaba (violin), Patrick Motsa (violin), Arthur Matlhatsi (violin), Tshepo Komane (viola) and Lebogang Nkwane (cello), performing African music on Western orchestral instruments for villagers in the North West Province. (S. Bokaba, circa 1990, private collection). Page 16 of 146 1.3 The popularity of brass instruments in townships Instrumental playing traditions are built over time, and brass playing (trumpet, trombone, tuba, French horn, and euphonium) traditions are among the earliest Western musical instruments to be adopted and the most popular in black communities. There are many reasons for this. Brass playing has been integral to South Africa’s church music since the middle of the 17th century, popularised by churches such as the Moravian church, established in 183815. In 1883, the Salvation Army launched its first branch in Cape Town, followed by the launch of the Johannesburg branch in 188616. In addition, during the 1940s, the non-European Affairs Department (NEAD) in Johannesburg introduced several brass bands across its black townships, which played on special occasions. Brass instruments were among the first to be introduced and were preferred ahead of their wind and string counterparts for practical and economic reasons. Some reasons are partly explained by Herbert (1997: 188, quoted by Kierman, 2009), who suggested that brass instruments were preferred for their sonic impact and practical utility. Given their tolerance to humidity or extreme temperature changes, these instruments are easier to maintain. The player’s lips form the vibrating membrane, and as a result, the challenge of constantly renewing parts, as in the string (strings) or woodwind (reeds) families, is diminished (Kierman, 2009: 17). Among education institutions, Ohlange Institute, a private college outside Durban founded by the educator and founding member president of the SANNC, John L Dube, in 1901 as a South African counterpart to Booker T Washington’s Tuskegee Institute in the United States, was well-known for its brass ensembles (Erlmann, 1991: 61). Centres such as Ohlange, Adams College, and their African American points of reference, had music performance as an integral part of their educational programme. With this background information, it is understandable why the City Council of Johannesburg initially invested in brass instruments and only introduced other instruments later or why more musicians play brass than any other instrument in townships. 15 Moravian Brass Band Union of South Africa can be accessed online at https://www.moravianbrass.co.za/. 16 The Salvation Army remains active in South Africa accessible online at https://www.salvationarmy.org.za. Page 17 of 146 1.4. Research Methodology Based on the work done by Scullion and Garcia (2005), Gray (2010), and Paquette and Redaelli (2015), it is clear that cultural policy exists in diverse contexts, interrogates by questioning and uses a wide range of research methodologies. Furthermore, in Arts Management and Cultural Policy Research (2015), Paquette and Redaelli state there is no consensus on the agreed definition of ‘culture’ or its existence in the humanities and social sciences, nor is there consistent articulation of what cultural policy is. Their argument rests on the reality that ‘culture’ is defined and determined by each discipline that claims it as a core and befitting area of study, and based on that, cultural policy research should be explored using a multidisciplinary approach. Paquette and Redaelli (2015: 77) argue that acknowledging and thinking of cultural policy research in a multidisciplinary way is one of the critical steps to understanding and appreciating cultural policies. By simply ignoring the different disciplines, some researchers may be entertaining different understandings and definitions, which could result in quarrels (Gray, 2010). Paquette and Redaelli (2015: 78) emphasise that knowledge of the multidisciplinary context of cultural policy research should inform and strengthen interdisciplinary understanding and academic openness. It is for this reason that Gray (2010) stated that some research must be situated in the context of its respective discipline, which is an act of sound academic judgement and awareness but does not mean that other work can be safely ignored because they are thought to be wrong. A multidisciplinary approach allows both the historical research and the policy implications of that history to be considered. The study draws on sociology, cultural studies and political science and uses identified perspectives, including community cultural development, diversity, sustainability, heritage, and the creative industries. South African cultural policy has embraced the definition of culture as a holistic way of life, as explained by the Marxist literary scholar and social historian Raymond Williams (1983). Williams (1983: 91) analysed prior definitions of culture and concluded that it develops across the facets of the intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic process that points to a specific way of life, whether of a people, period, group, or humanity in general. His definition also includes practices of intellectual and, specifically, artistic activity, music, literature, painting, Page 18 of 146 and sculpture. The African Union’s Charter for African Cultural Renaissance (2006: 5), which appears to align with the ideas put forward by Williams (1983:91), states that: [A]ny human community is necessarily governed by rules and principles based on culture; and that culture should be regarded as the set of distinctive linguistic, spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of the society or social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs. Gray (2010) discusses the significance of how knowledge is acquired as it pertains to the subject being researched and can be a distinguishing factor between positivist, interpretivist, and realist methodologies. Gray (2010) also states that, in general, much of the cultural studies literature is interpretivist. This view applies to this study as it involves interpreting the various elements integrating human interest and considering the policy implications. Therefore, the study uses qualitative analysis as the most suitable method for this research. As stated by Scullion and Garcia (2005), the audience of cultural policy is diverse and distinctive to the extent that it may be considered a defining aspect. The intended audience for this study includes, among others, academics, civil society, interested establishments and specialist agencies involved in culture and the arts, consultancies and think tanks, policymakers, and politicians at every level, from local to international. In terms of analysis, as Gray (2010:216) points out, new findings and areas of knowledge that can be generated with a greater awareness of underlying ontological, epistemological, and methodological bases offer different approaches to analysis. There is, therefore, more significant potential not only to recognise the strength, weaknesses and possibilities of current research but also to develop new pathways for future research. The multidisciplinary, qualitative research design framework approach for this study aligns with Hofstee’s work, which is based on the credibility of the approach and process to the research, and hence the argument that a result can only be accepted, rejected, checked, replicated, or even understood in the context of how the researcher got there (Hofstee, Page 19 of 146 2009: 107). Furthermore, it made it possible not only to understand how social networks helped keep cultural traditions, and more specifically, classical music alive but assisted with evaluating current arts policies concerning orchestral music practice in black townships. All steps were followed to ensure that this study could expand the body of knowledge in the field of cultural policy and that the results were accepted and understood. The study benefitted from existing historical papers currently in the custody of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), which include minutes and reports of the City of Johannesburg, lease agreements entered into by the city, newspaper clippings, contracts and other relevant information. In addition, ongoing research at the South African Music Archive Project at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, especially the work undertaken by Pamela Tancsik on Joseph Trauneck, was useful in giving context to the developments from the 1930s to the 1950s. Cecil Skotnes’ family archives shed further light on the reasons for developing township music education projects during his tenure with the City of Johannesburg. The sampling of the interviewees was carefully planned, focusing on specific people who understood the issues from their personal experiences or situations. These included retired and current orchestral musicians (both black and white), music educators, policy experts, arts administrators and academics, cultural activists, and choral conductors (see Appendix B). The interviews were semi-structured, but I had to return several times to some interviewees for further clarity or more information. The range of skills and backgrounds of the interviewees assisted with understanding the reasons behind the thriving orchestral music practices in the townships covered in the thesis, their place in policy and a better understanding of the policy environment in general and other socio-political conditions. The semi-structured interviews allowed for focused conversations while also providing the freedom to explore the participants’ responses further. It has to be noted at this point that two of the interviewees who participated in the launch concerts of South Africa’s newly formed national orchestra requested anonymity and that they should not be identifiable. They were required to clarify the booking process to determine if merit is considered when selecting musicians, whether there are auditions or if the selection of musicians is based on something else. They shared evidence that they received an invitation and that it was Page 20 of 146 difficult to understand the selection criteria. The two musicians were, therefore, the only interviewees given anonymity and confidentiality. This study used critical textual and discourse analysis, which helped uncover the ideologies underpinning policies, and employed thematic data analysis to analyse the interview responses. At this point, it is essential to declare that I am a classical musician and have lived part of the history I describe in the following chapters. I also have a professional interest in an executive role, especially in my role as a former Managing Director of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and former Chief Executive of the South African Music Education Trust. This thesis establishes a dialogue between my professional experience and what scholarly reflection can bring to that practice. Although it is impossible to separate the one from the other, I have found it enriching to step back from just doing, or defending what I do as a practitioner to enquire, maybe ask difficult questions of myself and my colleagues or ancestors even – and try and find a way forward that can simultaneously be informed by theory and practice. The researcher and supervisor carefully considered the benefits and challenges of insider positionality. We concluded that the value of the knowledge generated from the researcher’s lived experience benefitted the research and did not compromise ethical standards. None of the people interviewed requested confidentiality, and their names were disclosed with their consent. The following two chapters look at the tone set by mission-educated African intellectuals from the 1870s up to the 1960s. They not only set out to explore tensions between tradition and modernity but, by the period following the Second World War, the pioneering generation of Zephania Mothopeng, Ezekiel Mphahlele and Khabi Mngoma from Orlando High School, and their colleague Lucas Makhema, at the Johannesburg Bantu Music Festival, had begun to realise some of the cultural vision. These developments take place with some support from liberal and philanthropic Europeans and the city of Johannesburg. The white Page 21 of 146 liberals were motivated by the need to organise leisure time for Africans and to try and ‘promote an understanding and goodwill between races’. Page 22 of 146 Chapter 2 2.1. The roots of orchestral music black townships In the period between the world wars, a new generation of leaders emerged in South Africa, inspired by the historical construct of the regeneration of Africa, developed by African American leaders such as Bishop Henry Turner of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Martin Delany, from the middle of the nineteenth century (Masilela, 2003:1). The South African leaders included intellectuals such as Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Solomon Plaatje and others, leading to the founding of what became known as the New African Movement. They identified culture, as will be discussed, as one of the ways through which the movement could advance their objectives. Through their interventions, orchestral music performance was gradually introduced and, by the 1960s, youth orchestras were part of the cultural landscape in Soweto. But how did it all start? The South African policy landscape from the nineteenth century to the first two decades of the twentieth century was rooted in two British policies, in different colonies, that were aimed at Africans, which appeared to be characterised by two seemingly contradictory orientations (Erlmann, 1986). The Cape Colony policy was intent on the erosion and disintegration of the African way of life, its practices and promoted cultural assimilation among Africans. Cape officials, he says, were to offer autonomous African communities equality in order to foster their assimilation and to curtail the potential threat — in the words of the then Cape Governor, this was to pursue their continued exploitation (for economic gain) under the veil of equality and their understanding of the new way of life, ‘to treat Africans as useful servants, consumers of our goods, contributors to our revenue’ (Erlmann, 1986: 114). In the Natal colony, the Africans outnumbered Natal colonists and, in a quest for self- preservation, they accorded the mass recognition of African customary law and traditional chiefs in the hope of protecting what was deemed white civilisation from the native and similarly protecting the native from white civilisation. These two approaches found their way into the mission stations and became an important source of change and innovation among Africans. Erlmann (1986) estimated that, by Page 23 of 146 1865, about 3000 African pupils were enrolled in the mission schools in the two provinces, which offered this countering but powerful combination of educational practices to this minority of purportedly uprooted Africans. On the one hand, missionaries followed British practice, which emphasised modernising agriculture as a skill to be acquired while discouraging writing and arithmetic; on the other hand, criminalising and penalising African traditional dancing and musical instruments, dismissing them as heathen. Both ideologies became state policy in 1948 and continued among the different groupings of the white minority (Erlmann, 1986: 114). By discouraging traditional African cultures, African students were gradually introduced to and adopted Western instruments and genres. This began with voice and eventually moved to stringed instruments, a process that would take over a century before a full black orchestra would be seen on stage. Although part of the objectives of missionary education was to help spread the influence of the British in South Africa, some of the mission graduates used this education to resist the takeover. By the turn of the twentieth century, a generation of African nationalists emerged, who were products of the missionary education system and sought to intensify the struggle against the colonial government. This generation did not see itself as ‘tribal’ Africans, for they were exposed to Western education — they were a new generation, they were ‘New Africans’. As pre-eminent essayist, playwright, and political activist Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo (1903–1956) explained, there were ‘Tribal Africans’, the ‘Neither-Nor- Africans’ and the ‘New Africans’. Dhlomo was one of the New Africans, who he described as follows: The new African knows where he belongs and what belongs to him; where he is going and how; what he wants and the methods to obtain it. Such incidents as workers’ strikes; organised boycotts; mass defiance of injustice — these and many more are but straws in the wind heralding the awaking of the New African masses. Page 24 of 146 What is the New African’s attitude? Put briefly and bluntly, he wants a social order where every South African will be free to express himself and his personality fully, live and breathe freely, and have a part in shaping the destiny of his country; a social order in which race, colour and creed will be a badge neither of privilege nor of discrimination…He is opposed to such well-entrenched traditional institutions as the Ministry of Native Affairs Department with their spawn of petty ignorant chiefs, Native Representative Council, separate systems of education, of revenue and taxation etc, etc. He knows that Councils chosen undemocratically by Government puppets cannot represent African thought, attitudes, progress; he knows how they prevent progressive Africans from leading their own people. He is determined to expose and battle against these contradictions and dangers (Couzens, 1985: 34–35). Among their many objectives, New Africans were preoccupied with constructing the concept of African modernity. A call to modernity, according to African National Congress (ANC) leader Chief Albert Luthuli, was an intensive wish to preserve what was valuable in their heritage as Africans while discarding the inappropriate and outmoded (from Luthuli’s memoir quoted in Gevisser, 2007). In 1906, Pixley ka Seme (1881–1951), a lawyer and one of the founders of the SANNC, spoke about the regeneration of Africa in his lifetime, a period he described as new and powerful. In his speech delivered to the Royal African Society in London in 1906, he understood the term regeneration to mean entering a new life, embracing the diverse phases of a higher and more complex existence. In his speech, he asserts that their generation resides in an awakened race consciousness and must therefore use this awareness to achieve and attain a higher and more advanced standard of life. Ka Seme also argues this realisation should go beyond the elementary needs, strive towards this complex, multifaceted existence and aspire for greater power. Page 25 of 146 In his book titled A History of the ANC: South Africa Belongs to Us, Francis Meli (1988) noted how ka Seme’s speech managed to articulate the continental approach which has characterised the thinking of all progressive-minded African leaders and which found its full expression in the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), an intergovernmental organisation that is now known as the African Union, established in May 1963. The speech, according to Meli (1988), expressed anti-racism, which was anti-colonial. Ka Seme asserted his national pride and identity and also expressed the mood and thinking of a new generation of African intellectuals at the beginning of this century (Meli, 1988: 25). As Meli explained, this was a time of social awareness and political consciousness that eventually led to the formation of a political movement, the SANNC. The launch of the SANNC, as discussed earlier, not only reflected the nationalists’ aspirations but had a strong continental character, with the congress opening with Enoch Sontoga’s hymn Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika (which was later adopted as South Africa’s national anthem) and closing with John Knox Bokwe’s Give a Thought to Africa (Meli, 1988: 39). The elected membership at the conference included people discussed above, who had gone to mission schools, those who had studied abroad, and people who were in churches. Chiefs were included in the initial structures of the organisation to establish a link with the rural masses (Meli, 1988: 39). The Native Land Act was introduced in the year following the launch, forcing many Africans to the towns, beginning the urbanisation and continuing the proletarianisation of Africans (Meli, 1988: 39). These developments forced this group of primarily young intellectuals to organise themselves politically and culturally, leading to many of the developments that unfolded. 2.2. New Africans at Work Some people who worked closely with Dhlomo (1903–1956) to advance the idea of new Africanism included academic and political activist Zacharia Keodirileng Matthews (1901–1968) and music educator, festival organiser and recording scout Mark Radebe. One of Radebe’s most famous students is Dhlomo’s cousin — the composer Reuben Tholakele Caluza (1895–1969). Radebe came from an eminent family in Page 26 of 146 Pietermaritzburg, and his father was one of the founding members of the African Independent Newspaper Ipepa lo Hlanga, the National Weekly Newspaper from 1894–1904. Radebe married Pearl Bokwe, and Matthews married Frieda Bokwe, the daughters of celebrated hymn composer John Knox Bokwe. In her memoir17, Frieda Bokwe-Matthews (1995) describes her brother-in-law, Radebe, not only as a brilliant pianist but as a significant contributor to the New African Movement, which included writing a weekly column in Umteteli wa Bantu under the pseudonym of Musicus. According to Bokwe-Matthews, this column provided the first serious music critique by an African, theorising how African folk music could be integrated into modernity by drawing lessons from Western classical music (Bokwe-Matthews, 1995). Radebe and his intellectual friends, states Bokwe-Matthews, opposed the introduction of jazz, which they thought represented unappealing aspects of modernity; however, they embraced Negro spirituals. Radebe used his network in the movement to organise the first African music festival in 1931, which became known as the Transvaal Eisteddfod. According to Bokwe-Matthews, this platform enabled Radebe to disseminate musical culture into wider geographical areas of South Africa, furthering the objectives of the New African Movement. Finally, being a choral music expert, Radebe organised and composed music for the African male voice choir, which sang isicathamiya, a style hugely influenced by Caluza. Bokwe-Matthews’s account is supported by Couzens (1985), who described the origins of the Transvaal Eisteddfod in detail and names Ben Tyamzashe, Ben Hamilton Masiza and Radebe as the people who came up with the idea for an African music festival. There is no indication why an avowedly African music festival adopted the name of a Welsh cultural gathering. Couzens (1985) talks about this festival being a significant development that brought black music enthusiasts together in a conference. Tyamzashe and Masiza then entrusted Radebe with the implementation of this idea. The reason for establishing this festival, argued Caluza, was to try to foster and preserve ‘The African Spirit’ (Couzens, 1985: 70). Dhlomo became the acting Chairperson of the Eisteddfod in 1934, and he used this opportunity to showcase his plays, supported by the music written by his cousin, Caluza. 17 Frieda Bokwe-Matthews autobiography is titled ‘Remembrances’ and was published in 1995, accessible online at https://www.pzacad.pitzer.edu. Page 27 of 146 They also saw this as an opportunity to build a cultural life in Johannesburg, maintain school connections and advance Dhlomo’s agenda for national identity in art, literature, music, and invention (Couzens, 1985: 71). Interestingly, it was some of these local ‘home’ social networks that manifested in collaboration in Johannesburg, as shall be demonstrated in later chapters. The Bantu Men’s Social Centre (BMSC) (discussed in more detail in Section 2.5 below) annual report from 1931 confirms that its hall was made available each year to the organisers of the Transvaal Eisteddfod and acknowledges Radebe’s excellent work as the organising committee’s secretary. Radebe features prominently in the annual reports and is credited with the annual successes of the festival. From the reports, Radebe grew the local festival steadily to make it a Southern African event, attracting participants from across the Transvaal, Natal, Orange Free State, the Cape, Bechuanaland and Basutoland. Regarding talent, the 1931 report acknowledges the ‘natural gifts’ possessed by Africans and noted that a third of the capacity audience comprised Europeans who applauded each item enthusiastically. Radebe helped prepare choirs for the annual competition, and it was these preparations that first exposed Khabi Mngoma to classical music during his time at the Salvation Army primary school in Johannesburg’s Eastern Native Township. Mngoma would sit and listen to choirs preparing, accompanied on the piano by Radebe, the headmaster at his school (Cockburn, 2008: 191). It may not be accurate to suggest that Trauneck introduced Mngoma to classical and orchestral music, with Radebe perhaps laying the groundwork. Mark Radebe was not only active at the BMSC and as a music teacher, but he played multiple roles within the music industry. As Bokwe-Matthews (1995) points out, Radebe was a very influential figure who also worked as a scout for Colombia Records, while his friend Griffiths Motsieloa held the same position at Gallo Records. These companies were head-quartered in London at the time, and both Radebe and Motsieloa were among the first African recruits in these roles when the swing bands took off to become a commercial business. These bands primarily performed at private venues and night clubs hosted by Johannesburg’s wealthy Jewish families, Page 28 of 146 including the Oppenheimers, Schlesingers, Barlows, and night clubs such as The Stardust, The New Paradise, and others (Couzens, 1985). In The Test of Bantu Leadership by RV Selope Thema, who was a member of the SANNC, shared views on the assimilation of Western cultures: The new life must come, and with it we have to swim or sink in its problems. We cannot survive the disintegrating and demoralising forces of this new life unless we adapt ourselves to its conditions. And if we must survive, we shall have to do what the American Negroes have done — adapt ourselves to our new environment. That is to say, we should assimilate as far possible the good things of Western civilisation and discard those that are bad (Quoted in Masilela, 2003). Thema’s statement should be read as the internalisation of colonising ideology and as the reappropriation of these Western cultures as a site on which blacks should assert a presence, culturally and even politically. Page 29 of 146 2.3. The Eastern Cape’s children’s orchestra New Africans were demonstrating that it was possible to compete at the highest level, and the spirit of New Africanism was sweeping through the country. Among those inspired was the composer Michael Mosoeu Moerane (1904–1980), who made history in the orchestral world with his work Fase la Heso (1942), which means My Country in Sesotho. Moerane was a full-time teacher and pursued music part-time. He became South Africa’s first black Bachelor of Music graduate when he completed his studies at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 1942 (he had registered for this degree in 1931 while working as a teacher). Fase la Heso is a symphonic poem derived from Sesotho songs18. Even though organisations such as Trauneck’s JSO were willing to perform in black communities, no evidence suggests that he was interested in African music, and there were certainly no black orchestral musicians to use. This work was subsequently performed by the BBC Orchestra in 1944 and other orchestras in France and the United States. The unavailability of local orchestras to perform his work may have motivated him to establish his own orchestra. This orchestra was eventually established by a donation of orchestral instruments, which he received in the late 1940s. While it is not clear who made the donation, Lucia (2020) suggested it must have been in the aftermath of these performances that someone donated a small consignment of orchestral instruments, including violins, cellos, flute, clarinet, trumpet and trombone, which he used to form the African Springtime Orchestra in the late 1940s. This ensemble was essentially a children’s orchestra, including his own children and his nephew, South Africa’s yet-to-be President Thabo Mbeki, who chose the flute, and other local children. Rehearsals occurred at his home on Scanlan Street in Queenstown, in the Eastern Cape. Mbeki’s mother, Epainette, is Moerane’s sister (Gevisser, 2007). According to Gevisser (2007), the ensemble’s favourite performance piece was Mozart’s Symphony No 39, which Moerane led on the piano. 18 University of South Africa website at https://unisa.ac.za/sites/corporate/default/colleges/human- sciences/schools-departments-centres-institutes- &- units/school-of-art... https://unisa.ac.za/sites/corporate/default/colleges/human-sciences/schools-departments-centres-institutes https://unisa.ac.za/sites/corporate/default/colleges/human-sciences/schools-departments-centres-institutes Page 30 of 146 Moerane was largely self-taught using his parents’ Hammond Organ during his childhood days in Mangoloaneng, Basutoland (present-day Lesotho). In Queenstown, Moerane and his family lived next door to the Matshikizas, another famous musical family known for jazz. Like their classical counterparts next door, Todd Matshikiza and his jazz peers preoccupied themselves with how their respective art forms could contribute and help advance New Africanism. Moerane, for example, exploited African songs and rhythms in his works in what (Ballantine, 1993, quoted in Steward, 2000) termed an ‘Africanist impulse’, which he says was an urge to Africanise music. 2.4. Up North in the Transvaal The formation of the Union government in 1910 came with additional legislative consequences, including the passing of the Natives Land Act of 1913. In practical terms, access to land would, from the time of the passing of the Act, depend on racial classification, with 87% of the land being placed in white hands. As Gevisser (2007) explains, this particular Act slowly began to ring-fence the aspirations of blacks, particularly black farmers, and their ethos of self-reliance and initiative; all these eroded, along with other oppressive colonial legislation that continued to disenfranchise Africans across the land. Many black people across the country, people such as Moerane, who had already been forced to leave Mangoloaneng to study and teach in urban areas, and many others, stood to lose their ancestral lands and to provide cheap labour in big cities to support their families. Sensing the rising tensions between Africans and Europeans, white liberals began setting up projects around improving race relations. From the time following the First World War, liberal structures started focusing their efforts on building bridges with black communities. As Motsumi Makhene19 explains – “the City of Johannesburg was an English city, and so the city created policies that were mediating enough to make sure that there was racial separation but that there was also cooperation to an extent, but not collaboration”. It is important to note how municipal policy at the city level was introduced to mitigate some of the effects of national policy. Johannesburg’s 19 Makhene was interviewed on the 11 November 2020 at the Funda Centre, Diepkloof, Soweto. Page 31 of 146 problems were complicated by the migrant labour system, which needed cheap black labour, so liberalism was often tied to racial capitalism. This resulted in policy tensions within settler colonialism, especially its two competing forms: what Makhene described above as English versus (implicitly) Afrikaans governance, with language standing as a not-so-precise proxy for ideological positions. This was the environment that cultural entrepreneurs and practitioners had to navigate from the colonial era until the end of apartheid. According to Couzens (1982), the Johannesburg city policies were, designed to help determine and settle the social atmosphere in the townships. In smoothing relations between Europeans and natives, culture was used as an auxiliary force to defuse native ‘passions’ through some cultural institutions built for Africans (Couzens, 1982: 318). It must be noted and made clear here that Legassick was not describing the actions of the South African state. However, the structures referred to above were, in effect, opposing oppression, even while potentially posing alternative forms of cultural colonisation. In Moralizing Leisure Time, Couzens (1982) not only gives insights into the rise of liberalism during this time but also explains one of the projects intended to moralise leisure time. This project was initiated with the express aim of fostering “greater understanding” between racial groups. Couzens (1982) quotes one of the prominent participants in the project, who explained the purpose in one of their meetings as follows: Page 32 of 146 The relation between the Europeans and the natives are today (this is the time following the First World War) more strained than they have been for more than a generation, and unless the temper of both races is altered, we are heading for disaster. The greatest need is for an increase in the number of Europeans and natives who have confidence in each other, and who cooperate to avoid conflict. The best means of securing this is to be found in the joint councils of Europeans and natives in which Europeans and natives work together to remove causes of irritation, and to improve racial relations’ (Couzens, 1982: 317). These joint councils were established and were the ones that sponsored the establishment of liberal institutions specifically designed to cater for, and encourage, the ‘moderate blacks’, one of which is discussed below. 2.5. Bantu Men’s Social Centre The Bantu Men’s Social Centre (BMSC) was established in 1924, and, according to its founding documents, it was established to form a common place, a nucleus for social intercourse for natives employed on the Witwatersrand. To this end, it offered recreational, educational and leisure-time activities for black men in Johannesburg and the Reef. It also served as a meeting place for non-white societies and organisations.20 The BMSC was not a facility of Johannesburg but was situated in the Johannesburg city centre on 223 Eloff Street (same street as Doraky House). It organised its own activities and made its hall available for cultural activities organised by external organisations such as the Transvaal Bantu Eisteddfod and the Johannesburg Bantu Music Festival (JBMF). The BMSC also hosted concerts, with one of its most famous being a symphonic concert held on the 20th of June 1940 led by conductor and city organist John Connell (BMSC Annual Reports). In addition to the instrumental programme, Connell’s orchestra accompanied leading African vocal 20 BMSC Annual Reports and Archival material available online at https://www.researcgarchives.wits.ac.za/annual-report-71. Page 33 of 146 soloists. This must have been the Johannesburg City Orchestra under local government and based at the city hall, as Connell was the city organist. However, the orchestra that performed more regularly at the BMSC was the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra (JSO), whose performances included the Annual Founder’s Day concert held on the 28th of October 1949 under conductor Joseph Trauneck. This event was attended by the Minister of Social Welfare, Dr AJ Stals, among other dignitaries. Important to note here is that Dr Stals was representing the national apartheid government at an event hosted by the city under the white liberal government (the United Party). These concerts served as music appreciation initiatives as black players were not represented in the orchestral ensembles (they only featured in the brass in the city’s brass bands at this point). However, some singers, such as Ezekiel Mogale, were fortunate enough to be accompanied by a professional ensemble. Additionally, the BMSC offered music education classes by organising piano lessons for black learners. The 1940 annual report stated, “Budding pianists have had their first lessons out of Smallwoods Book for Beginners. In steady persistent monotony, they thumped at the keyboard, with uncertain fingers and yearning hearts”. These lessons were first offered by Mr W Sihlali from 1940–1948, with Todd Matshikiza taking over from 1949 onwards. Lessons were so popular with young people that the BMSC had to find two more pianos to meet the demand. 2.6. Jubilee Social Centre Jan Smuts served as Prime Minister of South Africa between the World Wars. After the Second World War, he made one of his most significant political moves when he invited the British Royal Family to commemorate King George VI’s Jubilee. According to Kathy Munro21, the Royals’ trip was organised as a leisurely three-month journey from February–April 1947 to allow King George VI and his family to explore South Africa and other neighbouring British colonies, including Bechuanaland, Basutoland and Rhodesia. According to Munro, Smuts wanted to consolidate ties between South Africa and Britain and possibly consolidate a South African identity. This move by Smuts backfired and, according to Munro, it highlighted 21 Kathy Munro authored the article ‘Rediscovering 1947 Royal Visit to South Africa’, accessible online at the Heritage Portal https://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/rediscovering-1947-royal-visit-South-Africa. Page 34 of 146 the closeness of Smuts to the British establishment during and after the Second World War and impacted the following year’s elections held in May 1948, when the Afrikaner nationalists under Malan rose to power – marking what Munro called the end of colonialism and the ushering in of apartheid. The formulation by Munro that refers to the end of colonialism is contestable, as evidenced by the longstanding argument, held within circles including the ANC, that apartheid was ‘colonialism of a special type’. In any case, by the end of the Royal visit, progress on establishing the Jubilee Social Centre had been made (to commemorate the Royal visit), and construction was completed in 1948. Located at 1 Eloff Street, Johannesburg, the building had an assembly hall and classrooms for teaching, concerts, and meetings for night schools outside working hours.22 This centre became the home for black classical music practitioners, providing space for the Johannesburg Bantu Music Festival (JBMF), the Jubilee Singers, and the Ionian Music Society, including the Jubilee String Players. Satellite programmes were launched across what is now known as Soweto from this centre. This was the centre primarily responsible for training black classical musicians. The centre was the responsibility of the City of Johannesburg’s non-European Affairs Department (NEAD), under the city’s Cultural Officer David Rycroft, who had a musical background. Rycroft left in 1952 (five years after he had taken the role) and was replaced by Cecil Skotnes. Under Skotnes, the Centre greatly influenced orchestral music by providing facilities, tuition, acquiring musical instruments and funding musical programmes. Skotnes achieved this by partnering with people who had expertise in the field of music and were based in the communities being assisted. Skotnes was not a musician; his background was in visual arts. Skotnes hired Khabi Mngoma in 1956 to advise on musical programmes. Mngoma used his tenure at NEAD and based at the Jubilee Social Centre, to establish the Ionian Music Society, including the Jubilee String Players (Ionian Orchestra), which the Jubilee Centre made possible when Skotnes acquired orchestral instruments and built a music library. This enabled Mngoma to initiate music projects, including establishing satellite projects across Soweto (this will be explored further in the next chapter). 22 Annual City Manager’s Report for the year ended 30 June 1948, non-European Affairs Department. Historical Papers Research Archive at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johanesburg Page 35 of 146 2.7. Johannesburg Bantu Music Festival The Johannesburg Bantu Music Festival (JBMF) was first launched in 1947 with Zephania ‘Zeph’ Mothopeng as its inaugural chairperson; the Mayor was announced as the Patron-in- Chief and Lucas Makhema as the first secretary. The festival operated from the Jubilee Social Centre. Makhema resigned from the JBMF Committee in 1954, claiming that whites were replacing blacks. Makhema was superseded as secretary of the JBMF by Mngoma. This period was especially difficult as mission-educated blacks were being singled out by Hendrik Verwoerd, then leader of the National Party when he instructed that the black teachers’ ambition for better must remain restrained, that a ‘Bantu teacher must learn not to feel above his community, with a consequent desire to become integrated into the life of the European’ (Lodge, 1983, cited in Cockburn, 2008: 204), basically ensuring a life of servitude. Skotnes took over in 1952 as the chairperson from Mothopeng when he (Skotnes) became the city’s Senior Cultural Officer. According to its constitution23, the JBMF aimed to encourage the love of music, promote and grow talent among African people, improve the standard of performance and sense of appreciation and introduce this to Johannesburg audiences, the best African and European music. Importantly for orchestral music, the city acquired musical instruments for the festival, which were used to start a teaching project at the Jubilee Social Centre and in parts of what is now known as Soweto. Additional instruments were donated by white liberals in the city, with the city paying the tuition of the young learners. The JBMF offered tuition in voice and recruited high-level tutors, including former Dresden Opera House singer Nina Zubiky and Desmond Wright from the Jeppe Boys’ Choir. Initially, ballet classes were also offered until they were stopped by the apartheid government in the 1960s. 23 Copy of the JBMF Constitution in the archival files at the South African Music Education Trust (SAMET). The author will consider depositing relevant copy with the Wits Historical Papers at the conclusion of the study to assist future researchers. Page 36 of 146 2.8. The influence of the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra and Joseph Trauneck From the 1940s, the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra (JSO) and its leader at the time, Joseph Trauneck, played an important role in presenting orchestral concerts in black townships around Johannesburg. The JSO’s focus on youth and music appreciation programmes led to invitations to perform at schools. This led to an invitation from Father Trevor Huddleston, who had become friends with Trauneck, to perform at St Cyprian’s Primary School in Sophiatown in October 1944. Father Huddleston not only invited the JSO but had also invited many classical musicians to this vibrant community for years. It was through these concerts that Archbishop Desmond Tutu had his first orchestral experience, as discussed in the introduction. Tutu was referring to Yehudi Menuhin’s second visit to the country in 1950, when he challenged the apartheid government by performing to a mixed audience at a time when apartheid laws did not permit such interactions24. Menuhin’s records confirm that his first South African performance was in 1935. However, it was his second visit that caught the attention of the authorities when he accepted an invitation from Father Huddleston to perform in Sophiatown. According to Pamela Tanscik’s SAMAP Research, Menuhin was inspired by Alan Paton’s book, Cry the Beloved Country (1948), which he had just read, and did not hesitate to accept Huddleston’s invitation to perform at his church. In 1950, as Pamela Tancsik (nd) explains, concerts before mixed audiences were not allowed. Therefore, by agreeing to give a free concert in the morning in Sophiatown and proceeding in the evening to perform in the city hall, where he was contracted to perform to a white audience (nine-year-old Michael Masote was in the audience). Menuhin’s defiance of apartheid laws attracted the government’s attention, and his agent accused him of breaking his contract. He would return to South Africa one more time in 1956, his last visit during the apartheid era; from this point onward, he boycotted visiting South Africa and vowed only to return after the country was liberated. 24 Yehudi Menuhin, accessible online at http://www.menuhin.org/the-man. Page 37 of 146 Father Huddleston recalled inviting Trauneck to bring his orchestra to Sophiatown because Trauneck had a passion for music education. And so, Trauneck began with his Saturday afternoon open-air concerts. According to Huddleston, Trauneck performed classical music, which was ‘quite marvellous.’ (Cockburn, 2008). Another venue that the JSO frequented was St Peter’s School in Rosettenville, a school attended by Mngoma, famous South African musicians Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, and others. The most significant of Trauneck’s concerts was perhaps when his orchestra accompanied Lucas Makhema’s Jubilee Singers in 1953. This concert was held at the St Mary’s Anglican Cathedral in the centre of Johannesburg and brought together Trauneck, Huddleston and Makhema, the choir conductor and the facilitator of the JSO’s concerts in Sophiatown. According to currently available evidence, this event marked the first time, locally or nationally, that a white orchestra accompanied a black choir. This happened after Makhema and his choir won all the trophies offered at the JBMF the previous year. The programme started with Huddleston opening the concert with an address, and then Trauneck conducted the orchestra and chorus (Cockburn, 2008). According to the estimates by the Rand Daily Mail, there were roughly equal numbers of black and white performers on stage that day, with 50 in the choir and 40 in the orchestra (Cockburn, 2008: 185). Due to the significance of the event, as noted by Cockburn (2008), The World newspaper ran several articles that included the following quote: “This was notably the very first concert of its kind in this country, the first time that the Jubilee Singers appeared under a European conductor… the first time that Mr Trauneck had conducted an orchestra with a non- European choir” (Cockburn, 2008: 184). A moving tribute for the concert was written by Walter Nhlapo, who, as mentioned in the first chapter, had a column in the Bantu World which defined some of the complex cultural contours of