Academic literature on the topic 'Sophiatown'

Many around the world have come to know South Africa as the rainbow nation, yet this notion has been subject to enormous critiques in the political discourse. The rainbow nation was conceived by the Government of National Unity that came to power in 1994, but it failed to materialize. What post-apartheid South Africa has yielded instead is a nation, or an imagined community, where race and ethnicity never receded. Although they are no longer pathological, race and ethnicity have become normative typifications of an overarching identity. Churches in particular have played a major role in creating a new identity. Churches have managed to move beyond the yoke of race and ethnicity enforced during the Apartheid under the Group Areas Act and the Resettlement Acts, and epitomized by the destruction of the vibrant city of Sophiatown and, in its place, the building of Triomf, an Afrikaner imagined community. Churches have led the way in deconstructing the perceived or realized power or disempowerment that is residual to the Apartheid. In reconstructing the community, they have re-imagined an environment where race and ethnicity remain the standard component of the South African national identity. This re-imagining requires that race and ethnicity be constructed as relational rather than hierarchical. Moreover, it requires that one acknowledge the woundedness (e.g., shame, anger, guilt, hurt, humiliation, betrayal, fear, resentment) that racial typifications create. As a social construction, Churches in Sophiatown are fostering this ethical environment where these values are embraced.

Cette thèse examine les rapports entre musique et politique dans l’espace de circulations musicales s’étendant entre Sophiatown, à Johannesburg, en Afrique du Sud, et la « cité indigène » de Léopoldville (aujourd’hui Kinshasa), au Congo belge, de 1930 à 1960. L’étude envisage à la fois la fabrique musicale de ces quartiers ségrégués – l’usage des nouvelles technologies d’écoute, l’appropriation des styles afro-atlantiques, la profusion des fêtes et la vie des bars – et la formation de l’espace transcolonial de la musique congolaise moderne, mieux connue sous le nom de « rumba congolaise », à l’ère de la radio. Bien que souvent occulté, le développement précoce de l’industrie musicale sud-africaine joua un rôle important dans l’émergence et la mobilité des premières célébrités médiatiques congolaises qui parcouraient les routes transimpériales entre Léopoldville, Elisabethville (Lubumbashi), Nairobi et Johannesburg. Étudiés conjointement, l’ancrage et le déploiement de ce que nous appelons l’« urbanité sonore » permettent d’éclairer la place des célébrités et chansons transcoloniales dans l’imaginaire politique des auditeurs africains. Ces phénomènes témoignent également des nouvelles possibilités d'émancipation que l'économie des plaisirs offraient aux catégories les plus marginalisées de la ville coloniale, telles que les « femmes libres » et/ou membres des sociétés d'élégance.A la cité de Léopoldville, comme à Sophiatown, auditeurs, danseurs et musiciens contestaient la définition coloniale de l’urbanité alors que le gouvernement monopolisait la définition de « la ville », en même temps qu’il en conditionnait l’accès, symbolique et concret. Jusqu’au lendemain de l’Indépendance du Congo en 1960, la scène musicale de la cité s’établit comme le principal espace d’expression politique et d’affirmation de la place du Congo moderne dans l’Atlantique noir.L’étude considère ainsi la musique dans la continuité de l’écologie sonore de la ville afin d’« écrire le monde depuis une métropole africaine ». Il ne s’agit pas seulement de penser la musique en contexte, mais aussi comme contexte, en tant que paysage, en l’étendant au-delà de la performance pour inclure les différents jeux d’échelle qui façonnaient les mondes musicaux. Pour comprendre la dimension politique des échanges afro-atlantiques impliqués dans la création de la rumba congolaise – un style africain né de l’écoute des musiques afro-cubaines –, il importe de prendre en compte le contexte de globalisation des modes d’écoute et de l’ethnicité. A une époque où le nationalisme racialisé des États-Unis façonnait la compréhension du jazz, comment repenser l’opposition d’une « Afrique latine » à une « Afrique du jazz », dont les pôles respectifs se situeraient à Johannesburg et Léopoldville ? Cette thèse cherche à déconstruire ces représentations tout en observant la puissance d’agir de la musique noire – « sa réalité et son inexistence » – en fonction des contextes, des acteurs et des lieux
This thesis studies connections between music and politics within the space of music circulation stretching from Sophiatown, in Johannesburg, South Africa, to the cité (the “native quarters”) of Léopoldville (today Kinshasa), in the Belgian Congo, from 1930 to 1960. This study considers the music making of these segregated areas – the uses of new sound technologies, the appropriation of Afro-Atlantic styles, the profusion of festivities and nightlife – as well as the formation of the trans-colonial space of modern Congolese music—better known as “Congolese rumba”—in the age of radio. Although often overlooked, the early development of the South African record industry played an important role in the making and mobility of the first Congolese media celebrities who circulated across the trans-imperial roads between Léopoldville, Elisabethville (Lubumbashi), Nairobi and Johannesburg. Studied together, the grounding and the deployment of what I call “sonic urbanity” highlight the place of trans-colonial celebrities and songs in the political imaginary of African listeners. These phenomena also show how the economy of pleasure offered new possibilities of emancipation to the most marginalized categories such as the "free women" and members of women’s fashion associations.Both in the cité of Léopoldville and in Sophiatown, listeners, dancers and musicians challenged ideas of black exclusion to urbanity enforced by the government that conditioned symbolic and material access to “the city”. Until the day after independence in 1960, the musical scene represented the main space for political expression in the modern Congo, allowing it to claim its place in the Black Atlantic.This thesis thus conceptualizes music as part of the city’s ecology of sound in an attempt to “write the world from the African metropolis”. It does not merely think of music in context but also regards it as context and soundscape, extending it beyond performance by including the different “scale games” that shaped musical worlds. Understanding the political dimension of the AfroAtlantic exchanges involved in the creation of Congolese rumba – an African style born out of listening to Afro-Cuban music – requires a consideration of the globalisation of ways of listening and ethnicity. How can we rethink the opposition of a “Latin Africa” to an “Africa of jazz”, whose poles would be located respectively in Léopoldville and Johannesburg, at the moment when U.S. racialized nationalism shaped understandings of jazz? This thesis seeks to both deconstruct these representations and examine the power of black music to act—its “reality and non-existence”— depending on contexts, actors and places

Pantsula dance is a performing art born from the townships of Johannesburg. It is a dance form performed across South Africa, in a variety of contexts; in theatres, music videos and competitions in community halls, on national and international stages and on television, and in the streets of townships, cities and suburbs across South Africa and abroad. Its performance is widespread, but it has its beginnings as a dance form born in areas created to marginalise and oppress. There is a scarcity of academic scholarship related to pantsula dance. This thesis aims to be a contribution to that pre-existing body of knowledge in the hope that there can be further engagement on this important, and increasingly mainstream, art form. I have focused my thesis on analysing pantsula dance as a performance of 'the township'. This has been attempted through an ethnographic engagement with pantsula dancers based in different township areas of Johannesburg and Graha mstown: various members of Impilo Mapantsula, Via Katlehong, Intellectuals Pantsula, Via Kasi Movers, Dlala Majimboz and the cast of Via Katlehong's Via Sophiatown. The research was conducted between 2013 and 2016 and serves to represent various moments within the ethnographic research process, while coming to understand various aspects of pantsula dance. An engagement with notions of 'the township', the clothing choices of the pantsula 'uniform', the core moves, inherent hybridity in the form itself, and the dedication to the dance form as a representation of the isipantsula 'way of life', are addressed throughout the thesis. As well as engaging with the memory and representation of Sophiatown as an important component to pantsula dance. Pantsula dance, an intrinsically South African dance form, provides a celebratory conception of 'the township' space and allows people from different backgrounds to engage in an important part of South Africa's past, present and future.

A dominant way of remembering the Johannesburg suburb of Sophiatown recalls a vibrant cosmopolitan melting pot. At the same time the wider symbolic identity of Sophiatown as a site of resistance, as a fantasy ‘sight ‘of cultural vibrancy, and as an example of Apartheid’s destructiveness also plays a role in a larger map and understanding of South African history, and speaks to other communities affected by similar circumstances. As Sophiatown increased in significance as a heritage site in new national, political and cultural narratives, an interest arose amongst various stakeholders to commemorate this space officially. However existing heritage practices reference only the history of forced removals. The walking tour through Sophiatown, with its very few remaining old structures, requires a cold defamiliarising of the existing landscape to engage with this ‘mental construction’ of a past that entirely removes this space from the lived experience of the present, as well as the last fifty years. Many of the Afrikaans residents from the Triomf incarnation still live in the area, and the last fifteen years have seen a dramatic shift from the Apartheid-­‐engineered white working class suburb to a diverse postcolonial space with people from very different backgrounds and cultures now living next door to each other. The aim of this research was to develop and apply different interactional contexts for residents within the fractured suburb of Sophiatown, with a view to exploring their conflicting relationships to the past, space and community through emotional mapping exercises and the creation of personal histories. My field research involved two distinct yet related activities that were undertaken simultaneously over a few years. The first part of this research, based on oral history practice, focused primarily on Afrikaans-­‐speaking residents of the area. Developing markers from current neighbourhood practices, the second part of the research, essentially a study in community building, more broadly addressed the diverse residents of this heterogeneous suburb in a series of facilitated workshops that developed over four phases. The central question behind these interactions and meetings is whether they could provide a platform for negotiation over a troubled past by acknowledging and appreciating shared experiences, and whether they can begin to foster healing and community pride. The familiarity this sets up begins undoing the construction of ‘the other’, through which negotiation of neighbourhood concerns becomes possible.

This thesis paper reflects upon the costume design process taken by Emma Hollows to produce a realist production of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company’s musical Sophiatown at the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts in May 2020. Sophiatown follows a household forcibly removed from their homes by the Native Resettlement Act of 1954 amid apartheid in South Africa. The paper discusses her attempts as a costume designer to strike a balance between replicating history and making artistic changes for theatre, while always striving to create believable characters.

M.Tech. (Construction Management)
Sophiatown residence is one of the newly built residential accommodations in University of Johannesburg. The residence is currently the biggest residence in University of Johannesburg in terms of rooms and is a residential accommodation for only students of University of Johannesburg. The residence is a three storey building and has 416 room all single rooms and 416 students occupying it. This research work is post occupancy evaluation of an education building in Johannesburg. The study evaluates the building performance; the extent to which the students are satisfied with the indoor environmental quality and investigates the extent to which the University of Johannesburg newly constructed residence is satisfactory to its occupants (students). It also evaluates the indoor environmental quality elements that affect the student’s health and common illness that affect the student’s performance. The methodology used for this study was quantitative. A structured questionnaire with multiple choices, scaled, matrix-type and open ended question was used to conduct the interview and obtain data during the survey. Findings from the survey revealed that the building is not performing as intended because the occupants needed improvements in some area in the residence like; quality of natural light in there room, size of the study hall, quality of space provided in there study hall and others. The students were satisfied with the building although they need improvements in the study hall, toilet and bathroom, kitchen and TV room, internet services and others. However, students need little improvement in the quality of artificial light in their room, quality of natural light in their room, size of their study hall, and others. They also needed improvements in the size of their room, temperature in their room, noise level in the study hall (ability to have conversation without neighbors overhearing it), and others. Lastly, it was revealed that Fatigue (tiredness) is the most commonly experience illness while nausea is most frequently illness had and also affect the students’ performance. Based on the findings from the study, it is recommended that the institution evaluates the IEQ at specific intervals to ensure that occupants are happy at all times and also to empower the executive managers in such a way that they are able to choose the correct materials during the design stage to promote good indoor air quality. It is important that the managers attend workshops (trainings) so that they have a better understanding of good indoor air quality that will keep occupants satisfied with the performance of the building.

This research report examines the period of 1950s Sophiatown and its socio-­‐cultural legacy pertaining to race and gender. Though the establishment of a cosmopolitan black identity was significant in its undermining of Nationalist Party segregationist ideology, the struggle for equality was predicated on a racial struggle that subsumed a gendered agenda. The work of Can Themba and Drum magazine, which have become mythologized in the contemporary South African imaginary, are interrogated with particular emphasis on one of Themba’s iconic pieces, The Suit. Through engagement with Themba’s text, this research report foregrounds the processes through which black women have been subjected to multiple, compounded subjugation. In response to the representations of black femininity in The Suit, the film component of this report, The Tailored Suit, privileges the black woman, Matilda’s, articulations. It thus functions to foreground the agency of marginalised subjects. In articulating from the periphery, the subjugated destabilise the hierarchical social structures that would subordinate and objectify them. By engaging the representations in The Suit, part of an iconic historic moment prefiguring the contemporary socio-­‐cultural milieu, the reimagining in The Tailored Suit offers a fragmented frame of reference, positing an alternative to a homogenising masculine discourse on history.

MA Research Report
This research report is a thematic analysis of hip hop and ‘sophiatown jazz’ cultures as sites representative of the older and younger generations of South Africa. It seeks to analyze the culture, actions, behavior traits as well as music content at ‘social texts’ that can give an indication of the commonalities these generations have. It seeks to advocate for the use of applied drama and theatre principles such as ‘dialogic education’ as well as other methodologies to appeal to different groups of people in accordance with what it relevant and meaningful for them. The research makes use of a phenomenological as well as interpretative phenomenological methodology. Key words: Hip hop, ‘Sophiatown jazz’, apartheid, intergenerational, younger generation, older generation, music, applied drama, ‘homeness

In South Africa, racial discrimination was witnessed through renowned segregationist acts including the Group Areas Act (No:41) of 1950, which forcibly displaced families from their homes and triggered significant social upheavals and the callous disintegration of long-established communities such as Sophiatown. The removals were a political strategy to relocate so-called “non-white” people from the inner city to townships such as Meadowlands explicitly chosen for their hazardous impure land known as mine dumps (Rodgers 1980:76). These displacements had a paradox of intergenerational homelessness triggered by instrumental racism that influenced politics of space and in effect, the disarticulation of the lives of black South Africans (Milgroom and Ribotc 2019:184). Therefore, it is important to undertake a study investigating the circumstances that gave rise to these forced removals, the subsequent breakdown of social order, a typical consequence of population relocation, which merits an examination of the contemporary implications and ramifications of disarticulation and highlights, in this regard, some significant shortcomings in post-Apartheid governance.
Anthropology and Archaeology
M.A. (Anthropology)

As urban populations continue to grow exponentially and cities evolve, mostly in deleterious ways, the demand for good quality urban facilities and infrastructure also increases (Memluk, 2013). In an effort to mitigate the impact of urbanization, and almost equally, the polarization of cities built environment practitioners have been constantly re-thinking their direction of planning and revising their development focus and strategies. Among many others, focus in cities of the global south and almost equivalently cities of the north, has been placed on the improvement public transit systems (increased mobility) and the reconfiguration of the city structure. Much of this has been done through the Bus Rapid Transit – Oriented Development game plan. Proponents of Transit-Oriented Development assert that one of its critical aims is to facilitate increased accessibility and, at least, allow “a degree of human interaction in the public domain – or ‘urbanity’ – that is difficult, if not impossible to achieve in much more socially segregated car dependent urban environments” (Curtis et al, 2009: 3). In the South African context much focus or emphasis has been placed on the former, while neglecting the latter. The research in this reportaims to focus on the South African – Joburg BRT version – the Corridors of Freedom, which was conceived as a BRT-OD since it features more than just buses, bus-ways and stations. To this day, in the context of Johannesburg, a lot of focus has been placed on connecting previously marginalised areas to the city and less focus on connecting the neighbourhoods together (Dittgen, 2017). Dittgen (2017) further states that the corridors should be shaped in a way that makes owning or driving a car becomes a nuisance. The project in this research will focus on the human aspect of the corridor. It will utilise the concept of - THE EVERYDAY - which denotes here and now, ‘the ordinary’, ‘content and context specificity’, ‘actions of people’, ‘reality’, ‘activities of people and domestic rituals’, ‘simple, mundane and ordinary’, ‘lived experience’, ‘repetitive gestures and cycles’, as a point of departure for people-centred urban design (Noero, 2004, Lefebvre and Levich, 1987). Croese (2017) argues that the success of BRT systems in other countries has also been attributed to the idea of creating kilometres of cycling and pedestrian corridors, towards BRT stations, to encourage the use of public transit. According to Cervero (2013) most BRT systems are initiated as mobility investments and less of city-shaping tools. This research aims to understand BRT stations as places of arrival, waiting and departure. It further seeks to analyse the extent to which stations and station areas are connected to their surroundings, particularly adjacent land-uses, and how the impact the users of the site. As emphasised by Jacobs (1993) streets become great as the result of their ability to successfully satisfy both the needs of motorists as conduits and pedestrians as great public spaces to walk.
MT 2018