Parading Respectability

Sylvia Bruinders

Description

Parading respectability: The cultural and moral aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa is an intimate and incisive portrait of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape of South Africa. Drawing on her own on background as well as her extended research study period during which she became a band member and was closely involved in its day-to-day affairs, the author, Dr Sylvia Bruinders, documents this centuries-old expressive practice of ushering in the joy of Christmas through music by way of a social history of the coloured communities. In doing so, she traces the slave origins of the Christmas Bands Movement, as well as how the oppressive and segregationist injustices of both colonialism and apartheid, together with the civil liberties afforded in the South African Constitution (1996) after the country became a democracy in 1994 have shaped the movement.

Informations

• Publié par: NISC (Pty) Ltd
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9781920033224
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Dedication
For my parents, Vera and Gabriel Bruinders
About the Series
The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd. The Series covers topics in African histories, languages, literatures, philosophies, politics and cultures. Submissions are solicited from Fellows of the AHP, which is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and financially supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The purpose of the AHP is to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge by Africans in the five countries designated by the Carnegie Corporation: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. AHP fellowships support one year’s work free from teaching and other responsibilities to allow the Fellow to complete the project proposed. Eligibility for the fellowship in the five countries is by domicile, not nationality.
Book proposals are submitted to the AHP editorial board which manages the peer review process and selects manuscripts for publication by NISC. In some cases, the AHP board will commission a development editor to undertake substantive editing and to work with the author on refining the final manuscript.
The African Humanities Series aims to publish works of the highest quality that will foreground the best research being done by emerging scholars in the five Carnegie designated countries. The rigorous selection process before the fellowship award, as well as AHP editorial vetting of manuscripts, assures attention to quality. Books in the series are intended to speak to scholars in Africa as well as in other areas of the world.
The AHP is also committed to providing a copy of each publication in the series to university libraries in Africa.
AHP Editorial Board Members as at July 2017
AHP Series Editors:
Professor Adigun Agbaje, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa
Consultant:
Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology)
Board Members:
1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa
2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program)
3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies)
4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies)
5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory)
6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy)
7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (History
8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies)
9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology)
10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Foreign Languages & Linguistics)
11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology)
Published in this series
Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema , 2014
Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014
Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English , 2014
Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe , 2016

Published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa www.nisc.co.za
First edition, first impression 2017
Publication © African Humanities Program 2017 Text © Sylvia Bruinders 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-920033-19-4 (print)
ISBN: 978-1-920033-20-0 (PDF)
ISBN: 978-1 920033-21-7 (ePub)
Development editor: Leonie Viljoen
Project manager: Peter Lague
Indexer: Michel Cozien
Cover design: Advanced Design Group
Illustrator: Sylvia de Moor
Printed in South Africa by Tandym Print
Acknowledgements
Photographs © Paul Grendon
The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Preface
Glossary of acronyms and abbreviations
Glossary of local words and phrases
List of figures
C HAPTER 1 Sociopolitical and historical introduction
Cape Town’s ghoema musical complex
An early history of the Cape
Cultural life in the early Cape
Coloured identity
Language diversities, religious differences and gender
Ambiguous identity and government ambivalence
Cultural hybridity
Emerging themes
Why Christmas bands?
Fieldwork and methodology
Comparative study
Outline
Notes
C HAPTER 2 Ethnography of the Christmas Bands Movement
History of the Christmas Bands Movement
Meetings
The road marches
The reinterpretation of public space: Spectacular moments
Federal structures
Cultural identity, religious and moral underpinnings
Respectability
Strategies of discipline
Constructing value
Musical sound of community
Notes
C HAPTER 3 The St Joseph’s Christmas Band
Biographical sketches of band members
Hannes September: founder and “father” of the band
Wallace Witbooi: Bandmaster
Chris Petersen: Captain
Anthony Tockley: Chairperson
Sharon Tockley: Secretary
Peter Noble: Treasurer
Cecil Tookley: Senior drum major
Embodied subjectivity
Notes
C HAPTER 4 From oral/aural to literate: Musical transmission in the Christmas Bands
Ambivalent notions about reading music
Ownership of instruments
The roles of the bandmaster and captain
Learning the “solo” in St Joseph’s
Conflicting ideas: Bandmaster’s aspirations versus community’s expectations
Visiting other bands
Star of Peace Christmas Band, Bishop Lavis
Royal Crusaders Christmas Band, Bellville
Palm Crusaders Christmas Band, Ravensmead
Perseverance Christmas Band, Elsies River
Biographical sketches of musical directors of other bands
Rochelle Klassen, Star of Calvary Christmas Band, Heathfield
Byron Abrahams, Good Hope Christmas Band, Grassy Park
In conclusion
Notes
C HAPTER 5 Militarism in the bands: Christmas Bands Competitions
Background to the competitions
Getting ready for the union competition
The City and Suburban Union Competition
The “solo”
“Best-dressed band”
“Grand march past”
The contestation of process
Why competitions?
Paternalism and masculinity
Military influence
Christmas band competitions and the local-global contexts
The spectacular nature of competitions
Conclusions
Notes
C HAPTER 6 Hidden subjectivities: Women’s involvement in the Christmas bands
Gendered scholarship
Advance of the women’s sector
Women in the Christmas Bands Movement
Royal Crusaders Christmas Band
Mrs Shirley de Kock
Women as music educators
Ms Christine Fondling
Star of Calvary Christmas Band
Women in executive positions
Gendered citizenship
Conclusion
Notes
C HAPTER 7 Reflections and conclusions
Notes
A PPENDICES
Appendix 1: Membership of the Christmas Bands Boards
Appendix 2: Hymn: Great is Thy Faithfulness
Appendix 3: Letter to the Athlone and District Union
B IBLIOGRAPHY
I NDEX
Acknowledgements
The manuscript for this publication was prepared with the support of the African Humanities Fellowship Program established by the American Council of Learned Societies with a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. I am also grateful to the University of Cape Town Research Grants and the National Research Foundation Thuthuka Fund for funding the research.
This research would not have been possible without the generosity of the research community I worked with, in particular the St Joseph’s Christmas Band, the City and Suburban Christmas Bands Union, and the South African United Christmas Bands Board (SAUCBB). Members of these organisations gave generously of their time to answer my many questions and allowed me to participate fully in their activities to understand and write about them. Special thanks to the late Mr Hannes September and Mr Heuvel, both of whom I interviewed several times, as well as to all the other interviewees. I am also grateful for the assistance from members in other unions and boa