Usually I try not to indulge in nostalgic memories. But a dissertation on the South African musical “King Kong” by Prof. Tyler David Fleming I came across dated 2009 sure took me back in time.
Can you imagine an evening premier during apartheid, that attracted diverse personalities, such as Nelson and Winnie Mandela and the head of the then largest South African company Harry Oppenheimer and his wife Bridget? With a follow-on party breaking all the rules of the infamous Immorality Act as mixed couples thoroughly enjoyed their proximity to the fury of the police?
Yet it happened! On 2 February 1959 to be precise, in the interracial Great Hall of Johannesburg’s Witwatersrand University. At a time when Mandela had been one of the 156 accused and also one of the legal team of the first Treason Trial, that ended with everyone’s acquittal in 1961.
I had been one of more than a thousand of the enthralled audience of all races. It exploded with joy, an ovation and uncounted curtain calls for the African musical “King Kong” with its brilliant composer Todd Matshikiza and a great 63 all-African cast. Finally the awesome director Leon Gluckman appeared, to turn his back to the audience as he bowed to his black cast. A truly moving moment.
What followed was an unforgettable First Night Party, where mixed parties enjoyed their togetherness despite the anger of the police.
The musical, like the premier, was a terrific success. The race for tickets was unprecedented in 5 cities and only ended as there were insufficient non-racial venues. The “Drum” journalist and writer “Bloke” Modisane, who lived his last years in Dortmund, claimed he’d seen it ten times. One of the organisers said, “The stage of Great Hall exploded into life. Arthur Goldreich’s designs… immediately captured the atmosphere of the township. The energy of the cast was electric, the music alternately seductive, exhilarating and haunting.”
The premier that evening took whites into black township life with all the trimmings. Brutal gangsters, wily tsotis – young criminals – illegal shebeen drinking spots, corrupt police – as well as the vitality of the lives and talents of African musicians, artists and writers. It appealed to audiences across the divide of apartheid, which was the root of it all. It was depicted but not openly attacked, which enabled its wide appeal, truly reaching the general public.
As Mona De Beer, one of the lyricists said, the actors did not act the township people – they were the township people, with the known saving factors in their lives of “optimism, music, and an ability to laugh.”
The dissertation tells the story of the making of “King Kong.” Miriam Makeba, already well-known, was the ideal female lead. She had also sung with the Manhattan Brothers, who had entertained African audiences nationwide for 20 years. Two of the Manhattan Brothers were the male leads as “King Kong” and his rival, the gangster “Lucky.” The two other members joined Lucky’s team.
Five musicians were the core of the orchestra: the three “Jazz Dazzlers” Kippie Moeketsi (clarinet and saxophone), Sol Klaaste (piano), Mackay Davashe (saxophone) and two younger members, Jonas Gwangwa (trombone) and Hugh Masekela (trumpet).
The musical was possible as several pieces of a jigsaw fitted. Recently a black trade Union of Southern African Artists (USAA) had been founded. Two talented young men, who were childhood friends had recently returned from their overseas studies, both later very successful in their field: Leon Gluckman, actor and director and the classical musician Stanley “Spike” Glasser. They instantly responded to the idea of three originators – the lawyer and writer Harry Bloom, Clive Mennel, director of the mining conglomerate Anglovaal Businessman Ian Bernhard – that the story of boxer “Dhlamini King Kong” would be a great musical.
This brings me to a point that Prof. Fleming highlighted and I’d accepted as almost natural at the time: all five were Jews. As the “Drum” writer Lewis Nkosi said, “Jews and Africans made Joburg alive and absorbent in a way no other city of the Republic was.” Jews were overrepresented in the arts and politics and in relations with Africans. It was natural the organisers looked to their community, so that almost every white participant was Jewish. It included the author, set-designer, director, lyricist, music director, choreographer and many of its stage hands.
Gluckman later said that something of the Jewish spirit had at some extent entered King Kong’s production. He had already commented in an 1953 interview: “It is difficult to exist spiritually in a country where the basic equality of all human beings is not recognised.” He thus rejected South Africa’s ideology of racial security and separation – understandable if one happens to be a Jew.
Yet in the end, the success of the musical was the endeavour of all racial groups and religions; above all, a great achievement in interracial relations in a country whose government had sworn to eradicate these.
“King Kong” caused goodwill and appreciation across racial lines. The interracial work with its mixed parties and relationships across the colour bar seemed to herald a new Bohemia of a self-assured middle class. The absurdity of apartheid was shown by whites signing the Africans’ “passes” before ferrying them by bus to safety after evening rehearsal, as the hour had expired, when Blacks were allowed in “white” Joburg.
Yet all dreams were to end a year later with the Sharpeville massacre, which began a harsher and brutal era that ended only in 1990.