Submitted by jsterckx on 9 December, 2014 - 20:57.
The student circle Xolo of the South African Studies kindly invites you to a movie evening on Friday 12 December at 6.30 pm in C1.
Drum (2004) is set in South Africa in the 1950’s and was the first feature film by Zola Maseko, who achieved international recognition for his documentary The Life and Times of Sarah Baartman (1998).
Drum was an important and seminal magazine that gave a voice to a generation of black English writers during the first decade of Apartheid. Although its programme was never an explicit political one, the magazine, its white owner, Jim Bailey, the editors and its chief investigative reporter, Henry Nxumalo, became the bane of the white regime of those heady years. Nxumalo, the focus of the film, was a fearless journalist who did not hesitate to become part of the terrain he was investigating. This included being arrested in order to expose conditions in prisons.
Almost all the significant black writers made their debut in the magazine, many under the guidance of Es’kia Mphahlele. They include Richard Rive,Todd Matshikiza, Bloke Modisane, Casey Motsisi, Arthur Maimane, Lewis Nkosi, Nat Nakasa and Can Themba.
Drum also employed Jürgen Schadeberg, a German-born photographer, whose photos still provide some of the most haunting documents of Johannesburg between 1953 and 1958, and the dominant political figures and events of that time.
