South African Choral Music (Amakwaya): Song, Contest and the ...

92 Shaping a New World: The Mrican Middle Class's Quest for Identity
the earth and were destined to play a leading role in African history",134 and took on European values.
This is expressed in Johannes Kumalo's forceful words: 'We left the race of our forefathers; we
have left the black race and have clung to the white".135 The Applications for Exemption discussed
in this chapter speak of the endeavour of the first generations of converts to assimilate Western
progressive culture and of their desire to cut ancestral roots. Black middle class communities tried
to gain the respect of their white models and prove their fitness for the "modern world". They
were eager to render proof that there was a substantial body of educated, progressive, religious, and
hard-working Africans, who, having already achieved much in the way of civilised standards, would
make trustworthy and loyal allies. Yet despite numerous sacrifices and demonstrations of loyalty,
they had to realise that their hopes of being assimilated into Western society would inevitably be
defeated by the social and political attitudes of colonial South Africa. In fact, the white communities
took the view that in the economic, social and political structures the black African must always
remain in a subordinate position.
Realising that their aspirations could not be fulfilled, the black elite began a process of reorientation,
involving a return to traditional roots and ethnic identity. The following chapter will
explore this process which was marked by negotiation and an attempt to reconcile tradition and
modernity. Choral music played a central role in this development: first, as a manifestation of the
new middle class identity, and, secondly, as a way of voicing, literally, their new identity in an eclectic
musical form with African lyrics.
134 N. Etherington, 1978: 175.
135 Natal Witness (March 27, 1863). See also footnote 15, page 38.