 | |
| Categories | Family magazine |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Founded | 1951 |
| Final issue | 16 July 2020 (print) |
| Company | Media24 |
| Country | South Africa |
| Based in | Johannesburg |
| Language | English |
| Website | drum |
DRUM is a South African online family magazine mainly aimed at black readers, containing market news, entertainment and feature articles. It has two sister magazines:Huisgenoot (aimed at White and ColouredAfrikaans-speaking readers) andYOU (aimed at demographically diverse South African English-speaking readers).
In 2005Drum was described as "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa",[1] but it is noted chiefly for its early 1950s and 1960s reportage oftownship life underapartheid. From July 2020 the magazine became an online magazine.[2]
Drum was started in 1951 asAfrican Drum by former test cricketer and authorBob Crisp[3] andJim Bailey, an ex-RAF. pilot, son of South African financierSir Abe Bailey and the aviatorMary Bailey.
Initially under Crisp's editorship, the magazine had a paternalistic, tribal representation of Africans,[4] but within a short time Crisp was replaced and the emphasis moved to the vibrant urban black townships.
The paper in its early years had a series of outstanding editors:
Both Sampson and Stein wrote books about their times as editor,Drum: A Venture into the New Africa (1956, republished in 2005 asDrum: the making of a magazine)[8] andWho Killed Mr Drum? (1999) respectively. Hopkinson, for his part, wrote about his experiences at the paper in his memoir,Under the Tropic.[7]
Drum's heyday in the 1950s fell between theDefiance Campaign and thetragedy atSharpeville. This was the decade of potential Black emergence, the decade when theFreedom Charter was written and the decade when theANC alliance launched the Defiance Campaign. The aim was to promote an equal society. The Nationalist government responded with apartheid crackdowns and treason trials.
It was also the decade of the movement to the cities, ofSophiatown, of Black Jazz, the jazz operaKing Kong with a Black cast, an adoption ofAmerican culture, ofshebeens (illegal drinking dens) and flamboyant American style gangsters (tsotsis) with chrome-laden American cars who spoke a slang calledTsotsitaal.
It was a time of optimism and hope.DRUM was a "record of naivety, optimism, frustration, defiance, courage, dancing, drink, jazz, gangsters, exile and death".[9]
DRUM described the world of the urban Black; the culture, the colour, dreams, ambitions, hopes and struggles.Lewis Nkosi described DRUM's young writers as "the new African[s] cut adrift from the tribal reserve – urbanised, eager, fast-talking and brash."[10]
Peter Magubane described the atmosphere in the newsroom. "DRUM was a different home; it did not have apartheid. There was no discrimination in the offices ofDRUM magazine. It was only when you leftDRUM and entered the world outside of the main door that you knew you were in apartheid land. But while you were insideDRUM magazine, everyone there was a family."[11]
DRUM′s cast of black journalists includedHenry ("Mr DRUM") Nxumalo,Can Themba,Todd Matshikiza,Nat Nakasa, Lewis Nkosi and others such asWilliam "Bloke" Modisane,Arthur Maimane, Stan Motjuwadi andCasey Motsisi. Together, they were known as "theDRUM Boys". This group lived by the dictum "live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse".[9] Most of these journalists went on to publish works in their own right.[12] The other journalists who worked there includeBessie Head,[13]Lionel Ngakane,[14]Richard Rive andJenny Joseph.[15]
It was not only the writers–the pictures were also important. The main photographer and artistic director wasJürgen Schadeberg, who arrived in South Africa in 1950 after leaving a war-ravagedBerlin. He became one of the rare European photographers to photograph the daily lives of Black people. He trained a generation of rising black photographers, includingErnest Cole,Bob Gosani and laterPeter Magubane. Magubane joinedDRUM because "they were dealing with social issues that affected black people in South Africa. I wanted to be part of that magazine".[16]Alf Khumalo was another well-known photographer on the staff.
Henry Nxumalo was the first journalist and specialised in investigative reporting. For example, he got a job on a potato farm where he exposed the exploitative conditions (almost slave-like) under which the Black labourers worked. In 1957, Nxumalo was murdered while investigating an abortion racket.[17] His story was the basis for the 2004 filmDrum.[18]
Todd Matshikiza wrote witty and informed jazz articles about the burgeoning township jazz scene.
Dolly (the agony aunt) helped many a confused, young lover to get their lives back on course. The "Dear Dolly" letters were written byDolly Rathebe, a popular actress, pin-up and singer. In reality, they were ghosted by otherDRUM writers, notablyCasey Motsisi.
Arthur Maimane, under the pseudonym Arthur Mogale, wrote a regular series entitled "The Chief" where he described gangster incidents he had heard about in the shebeens.Don Mattera, a leading Sophiatown gangster, took exception to this. "The gangsters were pissed off with him and there was a word out that we should wipe this guy off."[9]
The office telephonist,David Sibeko, became leader of thePan-African Congress.[19]
DRUM also encouraged fiction.Es'kia Mphahlele (the fiction editor from 1955 to 1957) encouraged and guided this. During that time over 90 short stories were published by such authors as Todd Matshikiza, Bloke Modisane, Henry Nxumalo, Casey Motsisi, Arthur Maimane (alias Mogale), Lewis Nkosi, Nat Nakasa, Can Themba and others. These stories described the people of the street; jazz musicians, gangsters, shebeen queens and con men and were written in a uniquely Sophiatown-influenced blend of English andTsotsitaal. This creative period has been called theSophiatown renaissance.[20]
The backbone of the magazine was crime, investigative reporting, sex (especially if across the colour line) and sport. This was fleshed out by imaginative photography.
The formula worked and made for compulsive reading. Each issue ofDRUM was read by up to 9 people, passed from hand to hand on the streets, in the clubs or on the trains. It became a symbol of Black urban life, and 240,000 copies were distributed each month across Africa.[21] This was more than any other African magazine.
DRUM was distributed in 8 different countries:Union of South Africa,Central African Federation,Kenya,Tanganyika,Uganda,Ghana,Nigeria andSierra Leone.[21]
Sadly, because of the immovable force of apartheid, the promise and dreams it described turned to frustration and despair. In 1955,Sophiatown was bulldozed and the writers died or went overseas,[22] and "...The creative output of the Sophiatown Renaissance came to an end as the bulldozers rolled in...."[23]
By May 1965DRUM had faded and became simply a fortnightly supplement to theGolden City Post,[24] another Bailey property. It was revived in 1968. In 1984,Naspers acquired DRUM Publications, the publisher ofCity Press,DRUM andTrue Love & Family.
The parent company of the magazine isMedia24 which announced in July 2020 that the print version of the magazine ceased publication due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[2]
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