/ 19 May 1995

Sophiatown the Golden

Three new books on the 1950s freeze history in photographs,=20

HAZEL FRIEDMAN. Is this a valuable lesson or just wallowing=20 in nostalgia?

FOR each of us there is a special time and place on which=20 is indelibly stamped the word “golden”. Part reality, part=20 myth — the rough edges and contradictions blurred by=20 memory — it represents a spirit that can never be repeated=20 or reclaimed.=20

To many South Africans, that time was the 1950s and the=20 place Sophiatown. “The best of times, the worst of times,”=20 was how Can Themba described the excitement and the=20 desperation of an era that heralded a surge of creativity=20 against a background of poverty and growing political=20

This “golden age” is the focus of three recently published=20 photographic books, compiled respectively by filmmaker and=20 ex-Drum photographer JUrgen Schadeberg, Drum magazine ex- owner Jim Bailey, and Gopal Naramsamy, who also worked for=20 Drum during the 1950s and is now a community photographer.=20

Sponsored by Nedbank, Schadeberg’s Sof’town Blues is a=20 vibrant compilation of photographs and writings of the day=20 recording the spirit of those times. Bailey’s Shebeens:=20 Take a Bow provides a nostalgic look at Sof’town’s watering=20 holes, the shebeen queens who ran them and the illustrious=20 barflies who frequented them. Whereas photographic images=20 constitute the fulcrum of Schadeberg’s book, the emphasis=20 of Bailey’s book is on the text, with the uncredited=20 photographs serving primarily as appendages.=20

Naramsamy’s is far more modest, both in terms of ambition=20 and financial backup. Although his book Gems is also=20 grounded in the “golden age”, its focus is scattered, and=20 it serves less as a pictorial history than as a brief=20 documentation of famous and ordinary South Africans from=20 the 1950s to the 1990s.

That the launches of Sof’town Blues and Shebeens virtually=20 coincided with one another is, in itself, cause for=20 comment. Schadeberg and Bailey are currently embroiled in a=20 skirmish over copyright which, in terms of intellectual=20 violence, rivals the physical violence of the 1950s=20 gangsters who ruled the streets and shebeens of Sophiatown.=20 But that’s another story. For now, let’s just say=20 Sophiatown was the kind of place that inspired passionate=20 claims by all its stakeholders. Even today, everyone wants=20 a small piece of it.

The most enduring pieces were captured and eloquently=20 immortalised in Drum magazine by a generation of=20 photographers armed only with their cameras, pens and a=20 commitment to “being there”. Alongside Schadeberg and=20 Naramsamy were Peter Magubane, Bob Gosani, Ian Berry and=20 Ranjith Kally, to mention a few. They were the pioneers of=20 South Africa’s distinguished tradition of photojournalism,=20 together with the likes of Ernest Cole, Eli Weinberg,=20 Willie de Klerk and Leon Levson.=20

As their pictures of daily struggles, shebeen queens, gang=20 kings, jazz bands, tsotsis, beaux and babes reveal, they=20 participated in the events they photographed, passionately=20 and recklessly — the thrill or chill of the moment is=20 reflected in each frame. And behind the camera shutters are=20 stories which are not the stuff of history books, but which=20 illustrate the headiness of the era.

There is the famous image by Schadeberg of songbird and=20 centrefold Dolly Rathebe posing in her bikini. But the=20 beach backdrop was in reality a mine dump. And immediately=20 after the shoot, both Schadeberg and Rathebe were arrested=20 on suspicion of contravening the Immorality Act.=20

Naramsamy also has some “gems”, like the time he hung head=20 first from a roof in order to get the perfect shot, and was=20 saved from plummeting to the pavement below, literally, by=20 the seat of his pants.=20

To such photographers, the daily struggles waged by people=20 for whom waiting and wanting were as much a part of life as=20 breathing, were of equal value to the broader political=20 struggles. Inevitably, many of their images have been=20 damaged, lost or destroyed.

Those that remain must be seen by all South Africans, but=20 these books also present the danger of wallowing in=20 nostalgia, of freeze-framing history and becoming enslaved=20 to mystification.

“After the Fifties, with forced removal of Sophiatown, the=20 banning, detention and exile of South Africa’s leading=20 political and creative figures, everything stopped,”=20 recalls Schadeberg. “It’s only now that we can take up from=20 where that era left off.”=20

In a sense, the launches of Sof’town Blues and Shebeens=20 attempted to do just that. The former kicked off at=20 Kippies, with Rathebe and her ever-ready — albeit ageing – – Inkspots belting the blues. Bailey’s book was launched in=20 a northern suburbs “shebeen”, replete with shaggy carpets=20 and cellphones.

Attempting to reclaim the essentially irretrievable is=20 futile, particularly for a country that is still bruised by=20 its history. There is much to be learned from the era, but=20 we must make new discoveries, nurture new visions and tell=20 new stories. Only then can we lay claim to a golden age of=20 our own.