William Modisane
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William Modisane (August 28, 1923—March 1, 1986) better known as Bloke Modisane was a South African writer, actor and journalist.
He lived in Sophiatown. Times were hard. His father was murdered and his sister died of malnutrition. To make end meet, his mother ran a shebeen.
He joined Drum magazine as a journalist and become one of the Drum Boys during Drum's halcyon days in the 1950s.
He was also the jazz critic at the Golden City Post.
His nickname of Bloke was inspired by The Saint, a character in the Leslie Charteris novels. [1]
He tried to facilitate non-racial progress in the arts by making concerts and theatre available to Black audiences and tried to further the efforts of the Arts Federation and the Union of South African Artists both of which were non-racial.
He wrote a number of short stories which were published in Drum. One such story The Situation derived from the Tsotsitaal (slang) for educated Blacks who rose above their station (i.e. situated above their station) but don't really fit into their new milieu. (Don Mattera mentioned this when describing the journalists. "There was a definite class division. We were in the streets, and they were in the desks. And we used to call such people situations.") [2]
Modisane found an outlet in acting. He joined the African Theatre Workshop and played in the first production of Athol Fugard's No good Friday. [3]
He shared the writing credits on Come Back, Africa, a film filmed mainly in Sophiatown.
Becoming frustrated by the political situation and oppression under the apartheid regime, he moved to England in 1959.
In 1963, his autobiography Blame me on history was published. This detailed his despair at the bulldozing of Sophiatown (mirroring Can Themba's short story Requiem for Sophiatown) and his frustration and anger with apartheid. As a result, the book was banned in 1966.
He continued acting and had a leading role in Jean Genet's The Blacks. [3]
He died in West Germany.
[edit] Books
- Blame me on history, Ad. Donker, 1986, ISBN 0-86-852098-5
- De Wet is blank, Van Loghum Slaterus, 1965, (Dutch translation from the English of: Blame me on history)
[edit] See also
- Good-looking Corpse: World of Drum - Jazz and Gangsters, Hope and Defiance in the Townships of South Africa, Mike Nicol, Secker & Warburg, 1991, ISBN 0-43-630986-6
- Writing from South Africa, edited by Anthony Adams & Ken Durham, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-52-143572-2 contains The Dignity of Begging: William Bloke Modisane
