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the apartheid government gave to Sophiatown after the
bulldozing ended in 1962. Promising safe, aff ordable
housing, the government brought in whites to live literally
atop the rubble of the old town. “It’s the worst name ever!”
declares singer Abigail Kubeka, who spent much of her
childhood in Sophiatown. “Triumph over people—the lives
people had built here.”
At 70 years old, Kubeka,
with dangly earrings, a black
fedora, a tiger-print dress and a
commanding presence, is still a
star in South Africa. She’s sitting
at a table in the Huddleston
Centre, a tidy brick bungalow
named after a renowned white
bishop who campaigned actively
against apartheid. The center is
part meeting place for artists and
musicians and part museum,
its walls covered with photos
of the jazz singers, politicians
(including Nelson Mandela) and
journalists who once congregated
here. In 2006, the post-apartheid
government changed the suburb’s
name from Triomf back to
Sophiatown.
The change was symbolic,
JUNE 2010 | UNITED.COM
but hugely important for the musicians who hung around
Sophiatown back in the day, including Kubeka, who as
a teenager regularly confronted discrimination as she
sang professionally throughout Johannesburg (and who
eventually would become one of Miriam Makeba’s Skylarks).
“During that time, there was the curfew law,” she recalls.
“Blacks were not supposed to be in town after nine at night.
AFRICAN BEATS
A PRIMER ON THE SOPHIATOWN SOUND
THE BEST OF MIRIAM MAKEBA: THE EARLY YEARS (2002) // Before the
late Makeba became an international superstar, railing against
apartheid everywhere she went, she sang with a variety of South
African groups, from the Skylarks to the Manhattan Brothers. Her
“Sophiatown Is Gone” is heartbreaking.
VARIOUS ARTISTS, TOWNSHIP JAZZ N’ JIVE (1997) // This is a great
sampling of early African jazz, including Andrew John Huddleston’s
Jazz Band’s rock-solid, briskly melodic, American-infl uenced
“Ndenzeni Na?” (featuring young horn players Hugh Masekela and
Jonas Gwangwa).
VARIOUS ARTISTS, NEXT STOP…SOWETO (2010) // Focusing on mbaqanga
jams from the 1970s, “Next Stop” is a worthy successor to the
20-year-old “Indestructible Beat of Soweto” series, some of which is
out of print. Check out how African jazz from the 1950s morphed into
the funk workouts of Zed Nkabinde and Mahlathini and the Queens.
PHOTOGRAPH BY BETTMANN/CORBIS