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

8.3 Adult and Cormnunity Choirs 223
number of popular dance halls, including the Seme's Club and Ematramini, the disused tramway
sheds in Alice Street. But after the 1929 Beerhall Riots, the Municipality closed down many of the
dance halls and passed regulations for the control of others. Thus the new Bantu Social Centre
(BSC), established in October 1933 by the Municipal Native Administration Department with the
support of a number of liberal organisations, was established at a time when the Durban City
Council was clamping down on dance halls and other venues where African people could meet after
working hours. The centre, which was managed by Edendale-born composer Alfred Assegai
Khumalo, an important amakwqya conductor and composer, was to provide the urban black
community with alternatives to the rowdy life of shebeens and beer-halls, and furthermore to
channel African leisure time and recreation away from politics and trade unionism. Situated in
Queen Street in a disused warehouse, the centre had facilities for film shows, concerts, billiards,
boxing and other forms of entertainment. It was later moved to Victoria Street and to Beatrice
Street, where it became a very popular venue for concerts and discussions. Against the intention of
the initiators, it also served as an important meeting place for political organisations and trade
unions. Although most events were open to everyone and the BSC discouraged ethnicity, members
of the working class looked upon this institution as "a 'high hat' club of the white man's 'good
boys"'.105 When Durban's BSC later became the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), it
continued to provide a venue for recreational and sporting activities, and became a popular venue
for the isicathamrya all-night competitions.
A central idea of the Bantu Social Centre idea was the creation of bonds between the white and
black population and promoting cultural exchange. In order to foster the process of what he called
"discovering the other man,,/06 Phillips advocated the introduction of discussion and debating
groups, which were named Gamma Sigma Clubs. Occasional concerts, musicals and dances were
organised, and the meeting sometimes featured European speakers. Phillips hoped to broaden the
activities of club members, promote mutual understanding, and educate black and white opinion,
especially in the discussion of race issues among black people and liberal Europeans. The fact that
black members were regarded by their white visitors as being "a keen, intelligent, cultured group,
deserving of trust and a larger measure of consideration", made the amakhofwa members of those
clubs feel deeply satisfied. 107 The Gamma Sigma Clubs were pardy informed by the efforts of the
black elite to create an African national culture. In creating links between Africans and white liberals,
these clubs nurtured the identity of middle class Africans who were trying to avoid slavish imitation
of Europe, on the one hand, and the artificial revival of tradition, on the other. 108 Other leisure-time
schemes were initiated by the black communities themselves. The Bapedi Club, for instance,
founded by Maketa Thema as a football organisation, later became a social club motivated
by the desire to "do something to keep people out of the streets on Sundays and keep them away
from drink".109 These leisure-time schemes seem to have been effective. A survey done in August
1933 shows that organising sport and music events and competitions and other activities like the
105 RE. Phillips, 1938: 303. Many of the leisure-time schemes, in fact, missed out the black working class all together.
Considering all the activities within reach, in the 1930's, one might assume that there were plenty activities available to
all black citizens. A closer look, however, reveals that these activities targeted school children and educated blacks. For
the majority of people living in the townships, litde was done to offer adequate leisure time activities.
106 R. E. Phillips, 1930: 191f£
107 R E. Phillips, 1938: 302.
108 See Chapter 4.2 for a detailed discussion on African national culture.
109 Maketa Thema, interview with R. E. Phillips, 1935, quoted in R E. Phillips, 1938: 295.