Apartheid and Jazz: Arts, Culture and Heritage Focus
(Extracts from an Article by Peter Sinclair, published in Sechaba, August 1970)
“On my arrival in South Africa some ten years ago I followed the course of my interests. This path led me to a building known as Dorkay House in Johannesburg, where I was privileged to be able to hear ‘live’ the type of music I had previously only heard on record. Dorkay House is the centre for Union Artists, a privately sponsored organisation that attempts to aid music and theatre for Africans in South Africa. A difficult task that daily grows even more difficult.
“At that state ‘King Kong’ a brilliant musical with an all-African cast had just been produced and was receiving much acclaim in both Black and White circles. The show later went on to London where it played successfully for some time and was the breeding ground (and escape route) for such artists as Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba amongst others. Today in South Africa it would be impossible to produce a ‘King Kong’ to play before White or integrated audiences. At best the show could be taken around some tatty township halls (African compounds).
“Steadily, blow by blow, the SA government kills any possibility of communication between the two main race groups – and consequently the possibility of any racial harmony. A number of years ago, in Cape Town particularly, where Apartheid regulations were less stringent, partly due to the large Coloured populati
