ABSTRACT
The study of popular musical traditions in South Africa stretches over three centuries of cultural turbulence, across linguistic and political boundaries, to the far reaches of the subcontinent, and to the capitals and colleges of Europe and America. The cities, in particular Johannesburg, also became the centers of local recording and broadcasting industries, the largest in Africa after the 1940s. So, the cultural history of South Africa’s cities and towns frames the description of the country’s indigenous popular music. The late 1800s saw striking developments in urban popular music. In the 1870s, in the remote north of the Cape Colony, a diamond rush led to the rise of Kimberley, an “instant city.” The social identity of Kimberley’s popular working-class musicians was significant because it set the pattern for artistic leadership in black popular music elsewhere in the country. Until about 1930, black South African urban popular music was developed in mission schools, community and voluntary organizations, and neighborhood social events.
