Drum (Magazine)
Encyclopedia
Drum is a South Africa
n family magazine mainly aimed at Black readers and contains market news, entertainment and feature articles. It has two sister magazines: Huisgenoot
(aimed at White and Coloured Afrikaans-speaking readers) and YOU
(aimed at White English
-speaking readers).
In 2005 it was described as "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa"—but it is chiefly notable for its early 1950s and 1960s reportage of township
life under apartheid.
and Jim Bailey
an ex-R.A.F. pilot, son of South African financier Sir Abe Bailey
.
Initially under Crisp's editorship, the magazine had a paternalistic, tribal representations of Africans, but within a short time Crisp was replaced and the emphasis moved to the vibrant urban black townships.
The paper in its early years had a series of outstanding editors:
Both Sampson and Stein wrote books about their times as editor, "Drum: A Venture Into The New Africa" and Who killed Mr Drum? respectively.
Drums heyday in the 1950s fell between the Defiance Campaign
and the tragedy
at Sharpeville. This was the decade of potential Black emergence, the decade when the Freedom Charter
was written and the decade when the ANC
alliance launched the Defiance Campaign. The aim was to promote an equal society. The Nationalist government responded with apartheid crackdowns and treason trials.
It was also the decade of the movement to the cities, of Sophiatown, of Black jazz, the jazz opera King Kong with a Black cast, an adoption of American culture, of shebeens (illegal drinking dens) and flamboyant American style gangsters (tsotsis) with chrome-laden American cars who spoke a slang called Tsotsitaal
.
It was a time of optimism and hope. Drum was a "record of naivety, optimism, frustration, defiance, courage, dancing, drink, jazz, gangsters, exile and death".
Drum described the world of the urban Black; the culture, the colour, dreams, ambitions, hopes and struggles. Lewis Nkosi described Drum's young writers as the new Africa
n[s] cut adrift from the tribal reserve - urbanised, eager, fast-talking and brash.
Peter Magubane
described the atmosphere in the newsroom. "Drum was a different home; it did not have apartheid. There was no discrimination in the offices of Drum magazine. It was only when you left Drum and entered the world outside of the main door that you knew you were in apartheid land. But while you were inside Drum magazine, everyone there was a family."
Drum's stellar cast of Black journalists included such names as Henry (Mr Drum) Nxumalo
, Can Themba
, Todd Matshikiza
, Nat Nakasa
, Lewis Nkosi
and others such as William Bloke Modisane, Arthur Maimane
, and Casey Motsisi
. Together, they were known as the Drum Boys. This group lived by the dictum "live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse". Most of these journalists went on to publish works in their own right. The other journalists who worked there include Bessie Head
, Lionel Ngakane
, Richard Rive
and Jenny Joseph
.
It wasn’t only the writers – the pictures were also important. The main photographer and artistic director was Jürgen Schadeberg
who arrived in South Africa in 1950 after leaving a war ravaged Berlin. He became one of the rare European photographers to photograph the daily lives of Black people. He trained a generation of rising black photographers, including Ernest Cole
, Bob Gosani
and later Peter Magubane
. Magubane joined Drum because "they were dealing with social issues that affected black people in South Africa. I wanted to be part of that magazine". Alf Khumalo
was another well-known photographer on the staff.
Henry Nxumalo was the first journalist and specialised in investigative reporting. For example, he got a job on a potato farm where he exposed the exploitative conditions (almost slave-like) under which the Black labourers worked. In 1957, Nxumalo was murdered while investigating an abortion racket. His story was the basis for the 2004 film "Drum
".
Todd Matshikiza wrote witty and informed jazz articles about the burgeoning township jazz scene.
Dolly (the agony aunt) helped many a confused, young lover to get their lives back on course. The Dear Dolly letters were written by Dolly Rathebe
, a popular actress, pin-up and singer. In reality, they were ghosted by other Drum writes, notably Casey Motsisi
.
Arthur Maimane, under the pseudonym Arthur Mogale wrote a regular series entitled The Chief where he described gangster incidents he had heard about in the shebeen
s. Don Mattera
, a leading Sophiatown gangster
took exception to this. "The gangsters were pissed off with him and there was a word out that we should wipe this guy off."
The office telephonist, David Sibeko
, became leader of the Pan-African Congress
.
Drum also encouraged fiction. Es'kia Mphahlele (the fiction editor from 1955 to 1957) encouraged and guided this. During that time over 90 short stories were published by such authors as Todd Matshikiza
, Bloke Modisane, Henry Nxumalo
, Casey Motsisi
, Arthur Maimane (alias Mogale), Lewis Nkosi
, Nat Nakasa
, Can Themba
and others. These stories described the people of the street; jazz musicians, gangsters, shebeen
queens and con men and were written in a uniquely Sophiatown-influenced blend of English and Tsotsitaal
. This creative period has been called the Sophiatown renaissance.
The backbone of the magazine was crime, investigative reporting, sex (especially if across the colour line) and sport. This was fleshed out by imaginative photography.
The formula worked and made for compulsive reading. Each issue of Drum was read by up to 9 people, passed from hand to hand on the streets, in the clubs or on the trains. It became a symbol of Black urban life. 240,000 copies were distributed each month across Africa. This was more than any other African magazine.
Drum was distributed in 8 different countries viz. Union of South Africa
, Central African Federation, Kenya
, Tanganyika
, Uganda
, Ghana
, Nigeria
and Sierra Leone
.
Sadly, because of the immovable force of apartheid the promise and dreams it described turned to frustration and despair. In 1955 Sophiatown
was bulldozed and the writers died or went overseas. and ...The creative output of the Sophiatown Renaissance came to an end as the bulldozers rolled in....
It was revived in 1968. In 1984 Naspers
acquired Drum Publications, the publisher of City Press
, Drum and True Love & Family.
Drum now claims to be the sixth largest magazine in Africa
.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n family magazine mainly aimed at Black readers and contains market news, entertainment and feature articles. It has two sister magazines: Huisgenoot
Huisgenoot
Huisgenoot is a weekly Afrikaans-language general interest family magazine. It has the highest circulation figures of any South African magazine and is followed by sister magazine YOU, its English language version. A third magazine, Drum, is directed at the black market...
(aimed at White and Coloured Afrikaans-speaking readers) and YOU
YOU
YOU is a South African magazine which is the English version of the Afrikaans family magazine Huisgenoot. It is published in Cape Town by Media24, the print division of Naspers....
(aimed at White English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-speaking readers).
In 2005 it was described as "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa"—but it is chiefly notable for its early 1950s and 1960s reportage of township
Township (South Africa)
In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...
life under apartheid.
History
Drum was started in 1951, as "African Drum" by former test cricketer and author Bob CrispBob Crisp
Robert James Crisp DSO MC was a South African cricketer who played in nine Tests from 1935 to 1936 before living for a while in England. He appeared for Rhodesia, Western Province, Worcestershire and South Africa. Though his Test bowling average lay over 37.00, Crisp had a successful first-class...
and Jim Bailey
James R. A. Bailey
James R. A. Bailey DFC, known as Jim Bailey, , was World War II fighter pilot, poet - and influential newspaper owner.The son of randlord, Sir Abe Bailey and pioneer aviator Mary Bailey, he was educated at Winchester and Oxford and joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot in September 1939...
an ex-R.A.F. pilot, son of South African financier Sir Abe Bailey
Abe Bailey
Sir Abraham "Abe" Bailey, 1st Baronet, KCMG , was a South African diamond tycoon, politician, financier and cricketer.-Early years:...
.
Initially under Crisp's editorship, the magazine had a paternalistic, tribal representations of Africans, but within a short time Crisp was replaced and the emphasis moved to the vibrant urban black townships.
The paper in its early years had a series of outstanding editors:
- Anthony SampsonAnthony SampsonAnthony Terrell Seward Sampson was a British writer and journalist. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford and served with the Royal Navy from 1944-47. During the 1950s he edited the magazine Drum in Johannesburg, South Africa...
, 1951 - 1955 - Sylvester SteinSylvester SteinSylvester Stein is a writer, publisher and athlete.Stein grew up in Durban, son of a mathematics professor. His sister and brother are both life scientists....
, 1955 - 1958 - Sir Tom HopkinsonSir Tom HopkinsonSir Thomas Hopkinson was a British journalist, picture magazine editor, author, and teacher.-Early life:Born in Manchester, his father was a Church of England clergyman and a scholar, and his mother had been a school mistress. Hopkinson attended prep school on the Lancashire coast and then St...
, 1958 - ?
Both Sampson and Stein wrote books about their times as editor, "Drum: A Venture Into The New Africa" and Who killed Mr Drum? respectively.
Drums heyday in the 1950s fell between the Defiance Campaign
Defiance Campaign
The Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was presented by the African National Congress at a conference held in Bloemfontein, South Africa in December 1951....
and the tragedy
Sharpeville massacre
The Sharpeville Massacre occurred on 21 March 1960, at the police station in the South African township of Sharpeville in the Transvaal . After a day of demonstrations, at which a crowd of black protesters far outnumbered the police, the South African police opened fire on the crowd, killing 69...
at Sharpeville. This was the decade of potential Black emergence, the decade when the Freedom Charter
Freedom Charter
The Freedom Charter was the statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress and its allies - the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured People's Congress...
was written and the decade when the ANC
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
alliance launched the Defiance Campaign. The aim was to promote an equal society. The Nationalist government responded with apartheid crackdowns and treason trials.
It was also the decade of the movement to the cities, of Sophiatown, of Black jazz, the jazz opera King Kong with a Black cast, an adoption of American culture, of shebeens (illegal drinking dens) and flamboyant American style gangsters (tsotsis) with chrome-laden American cars who spoke a slang called Tsotsitaal
Tsotsitaal
Tsotsitaals are a variety of mixed languages mainly spoken in the townships of Gauteng province, such as Soweto, but also in other agglomerations all over South Africa...
.
It was a time of optimism and hope. Drum was a "record of naivety, optimism, frustration, defiance, courage, dancing, drink, jazz, gangsters, exile and death".
Drum described the world of the urban Black; the culture, the colour, dreams, ambitions, hopes and struggles. Lewis Nkosi described Drum's young writers as the new Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n[s] cut adrift from the tribal reserve - urbanised, eager, fast-talking and brash.
Peter Magubane
Peter Magubane
-Early life:He was born in Vrededorp, now Pageview, a suburb in Johannesburg and grew up in Sophiatown. He started taking some photographs using a Kodak Brownie box camera as a schoolboy....
described the atmosphere in the newsroom. "Drum was a different home; it did not have apartheid. There was no discrimination in the offices of Drum magazine. It was only when you left Drum and entered the world outside of the main door that you knew you were in apartheid land. But while you were inside Drum magazine, everyone there was a family."
Drum's stellar cast of Black journalists included such names as Henry (Mr Drum) Nxumalo
Henry Nxumalo
Henry Nxumalo, also known as Henry "Mr Drum" Nxumalo was a South African journalist.- Biography :He was born in 1917 in Margate, Natal, South Africa and attended the Fascadale Mission School...
, Can Themba
Can Themba
-Overview:He was born in Marabastad, near Pretoria, but wrote most of his work in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa before it was destroyed under the provisions of the apartheid Group Areas Act....
, Todd Matshikiza
Todd Matshikiza
Todd Tozama Matshikiza was a South African jazz pianist, composer and journalist.-Overview:Matshikiza came from a musical family. He graduated from St Peter's College in Rosettenville, Johannesburg and went on to obtain a diploma in music and a teaching diploma. He then taught English and...
, Nat Nakasa
Nat Nakasa
Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa better known as Nat Nakasa was a South African short story writer and journalist.He was born in Durban but moved to Johannesburg to work as a journalist for Drum magazine...
, Lewis Nkosi
Lewis Nkosi
Lewis Nkosi was a South African writer and essayist. He was a multifaceted personality, and attempted every literary genre, literary criticism, poetry, drama, and novels.-Later life:...
and others such as William Bloke Modisane, Arthur Maimane
Arthur Maimane
John Arthur Mogale Maimane , better known as Arthur Maimane, was a South African journalist born in Pretoria. Originally intending to study medicine, a young priest, Trevor Huddleston, persuaded him to take a vacation job at Drum magazine. As a result, he choose journalism as his life career...
, and Casey Motsisi
Casey Motsisi
Karobo Moses Motsisi better known as Casey Motsisi or Casey 'Kid' Motsisi was a South African short story writer and journalist.He was born in Johannesburg and worked for a time in Pretoria as a teacher....
. Together, they were known as the Drum Boys. This group lived by the dictum "live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse". Most of these journalists went on to publish works in their own right. The other journalists who worked there include Bessie Head
Bessie Head
Bessie Emery Head is usually considered Botswana's most influential writer.-Biography:Bessie Emery Head was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the child of a wealthy white South African woman and a black servant when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa...
, Lionel Ngakane
Lionel Ngakane
Lionel Ngakane was a South African filmmaker.Ngakane was educated at Fort Hare University College and Wits University, and worked on Drum and Zonk magazines from 1948 to 1950. In 1950 he began his career in film as an assistant director and actor in the film version of Cry, the Beloved Country,...
, Richard Rive
Richard Rive
-Biography:Rive was born on 1 March 1931 in Caledon Street in the working-class coloured District Six of Cape Town.His father was African, and his mother was coloured, and Rive was given the latter classification under apartheid...
and Jenny Joseph
Jenny Joseph
-Life and career:She was born in Birmingham, and with a scholarship, studied English literature at St Hilda's College, Oxford .Her poems were first published when she was at university in the early 1950s...
.
It wasn’t only the writers – the pictures were also important. The main photographer and artistic director was Jürgen Schadeberg
Jürgen Schadeberg
-Overview:Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist....
who arrived in South Africa in 1950 after leaving a war ravaged Berlin. He became one of the rare European photographers to photograph the daily lives of Black people. He trained a generation of rising black photographers, including Ernest Cole
Ernest Cole
-Overview:Ernest Cole was a black South African born in Eersterust in Pretoria, in 1940.He left school when the Bantu Education Act was put in place, and instead completed his matric via correspondance...
, Bob Gosani
Bob Gosani
-Overview:Bob Gosani started off at Drum magazine as a messenger but soon moved to the photographic department where he became Jürgen Schadeberg’s darkroom assistant. He later became one of Drum’s best photographers....
and later Peter Magubane
Peter Magubane
-Early life:He was born in Vrededorp, now Pageview, a suburb in Johannesburg and grew up in Sophiatown. He started taking some photographs using a Kodak Brownie box camera as a schoolboy....
. Magubane joined Drum because "they were dealing with social issues that affected black people in South Africa. I wanted to be part of that magazine". Alf Khumalo
Alf Khumalo
Alfred Kumalo is a South African photographer.-Overview:Alf Kumalo was born in Alexandra near Johannesburg. He first worked in a garage doing various jobs and then started freelancing for various publications, selling his photographs where he could...
was another well-known photographer on the staff.
Henry Nxumalo was the first journalist and specialised in investigative reporting. For example, he got a job on a potato farm where he exposed the exploitative conditions (almost slave-like) under which the Black labourers worked. In 1957, Nxumalo was murdered while investigating an abortion racket. His story was the basis for the 2004 film "Drum
Drum (2004 film)
Drum is a 2004 film based on the life of South African investigative journalist Henry Nxumalo, who worked for the popular Drum magazine, called "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa." It was director Zola Maseko's first film and deals with the issues of apartheid and the forced removal of...
".
Todd Matshikiza wrote witty and informed jazz articles about the burgeoning township jazz scene.
Dolly (the agony aunt) helped many a confused, young lover to get their lives back on course. The Dear Dolly letters were written by Dolly Rathebe
Dolly Rathebe
Dolly Rathebe was a South African musician and actress.Dolly Rathebe was born in Randfontein in South Africa but grew up in Sophiatown which she describes as having been "a wonderful place". She was discovered around 1948 after singing at a picnic in Johannesburg...
, a popular actress, pin-up and singer. In reality, they were ghosted by other Drum writes, notably Casey Motsisi
Casey Motsisi
Karobo Moses Motsisi better known as Casey Motsisi or Casey 'Kid' Motsisi was a South African short story writer and journalist.He was born in Johannesburg and worked for a time in Pretoria as a teacher....
.
Arthur Maimane, under the pseudonym Arthur Mogale wrote a regular series entitled The Chief where he described gangster incidents he had heard about in the shebeen
Shebeen
A shebeen was originally an illicit bar or club where excisable alcoholic beverages were sold without a licence.The term has spread far from its origins in Ireland, to Scotland, Canada, the United States, England,...
s. Don Mattera
Don Mattera
Donato Francisco Mattera , better known as Don Mattera, is a South African poet and author.- Overview :...
, a leading Sophiatown gangster
took exception to this. "The gangsters were pissed off with him and there was a word out that we should wipe this guy off."
The office telephonist, David Sibeko
David Sibeko
David Maphgumzana Sibeko , was known as the "Malcolm X of South Africa" and began his political career as a journalist for the black South African Magazine Drum. During his tenure with that magazine, he became a leading figure within the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania...
, became leader of the Pan-African Congress
Pan-African Congress
The Pan-African Congress was a series of five meetings in 1919, 1921, 1923, 1927, and 1945 that were intended to address the issues facing Africa due to European colonization of much of the continent....
.
Drum also encouraged fiction. Es'kia Mphahlele (the fiction editor from 1955 to 1957) encouraged and guided this. During that time over 90 short stories were published by such authors as Todd Matshikiza
Todd Matshikiza
Todd Tozama Matshikiza was a South African jazz pianist, composer and journalist.-Overview:Matshikiza came from a musical family. He graduated from St Peter's College in Rosettenville, Johannesburg and went on to obtain a diploma in music and a teaching diploma. He then taught English and...
, Bloke Modisane, Henry Nxumalo
Henry Nxumalo
Henry Nxumalo, also known as Henry "Mr Drum" Nxumalo was a South African journalist.- Biography :He was born in 1917 in Margate, Natal, South Africa and attended the Fascadale Mission School...
, Casey Motsisi
Casey Motsisi
Karobo Moses Motsisi better known as Casey Motsisi or Casey 'Kid' Motsisi was a South African short story writer and journalist.He was born in Johannesburg and worked for a time in Pretoria as a teacher....
, Arthur Maimane (alias Mogale), Lewis Nkosi
Lewis Nkosi
Lewis Nkosi was a South African writer and essayist. He was a multifaceted personality, and attempted every literary genre, literary criticism, poetry, drama, and novels.-Later life:...
, Nat Nakasa
Nat Nakasa
Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa better known as Nat Nakasa was a South African short story writer and journalist.He was born in Durban but moved to Johannesburg to work as a journalist for Drum magazine...
, Can Themba
Can Themba
-Overview:He was born in Marabastad, near Pretoria, but wrote most of his work in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa before it was destroyed under the provisions of the apartheid Group Areas Act....
and others. These stories described the people of the street; jazz musicians, gangsters, shebeen
Shebeen
A shebeen was originally an illicit bar or club where excisable alcoholic beverages were sold without a licence.The term has spread far from its origins in Ireland, to Scotland, Canada, the United States, England,...
queens and con men and were written in a uniquely Sophiatown-influenced blend of English and Tsotsitaal
Tsotsitaal
Tsotsitaals are a variety of mixed languages mainly spoken in the townships of Gauteng province, such as Soweto, but also in other agglomerations all over South Africa...
. This creative period has been called the Sophiatown renaissance.
The backbone of the magazine was crime, investigative reporting, sex (especially if across the colour line) and sport. This was fleshed out by imaginative photography.
The formula worked and made for compulsive reading. Each issue of Drum was read by up to 9 people, passed from hand to hand on the streets, in the clubs or on the trains. It became a symbol of Black urban life. 240,000 copies were distributed each month across Africa. This was more than any other African magazine.
Drum was distributed in 8 different countries viz. Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
The Union of South Africa is the historic predecessor to the present-day Republic of South Africa. It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and the Orange Free State...
, Central African Federation, Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Tanganyika
Tanganyika
Tanganyika , later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964. It was situated between the Indian Ocean and the African Great Lakes of Lake Victoria, Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
and Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
.
Sadly, because of the immovable force of apartheid the promise and dreams it described turned to frustration and despair. In 1955 Sophiatown
Sophiatown, Gauteng
Sophiatown is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa.Sophiatown was a legendary black cultural hub that was destroyed under Apartheid, rebuilt under the name by Triomf, and in 2006 officially returned to its original name.Sophiatown was one of the oldest black areas in Johannesburg and its...
was bulldozed and the writers died or went overseas. and ...The creative output of the Sophiatown Renaissance came to an end as the bulldozers rolled in....
Later ownership
By May 1965 Drum had faded and became simply a fortnightly supplement to the "Golden City Post", another Bailey property.It was revived in 1968. In 1984 Naspers
Naspers
Naspers is a South Africa-based multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media and print media Naspers is a South Africa-based multinational media company with principal operations in electronic media (including pay-television, internet and instant-messaging subscriber...
acquired Drum Publications, the publisher of City Press
City Press (South Africa)
City Press is a Sunday newspaper that is aimed at black readers and is the third biggest selling newspaper in South Africa. City Press is distributed nationally and in neighboring countries including Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland...
, Drum and True Love & Family.
Drum now claims to be the sixth largest magazine in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
See also
- Defiant Images: Photography and Apartheid South Africa, Darren Newbury, University of South Africa (UNISA) Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-86888-523-7 (see Chapter 2. 'A fine thing': The African Drum, and Chapter 3. 'Johannesburg lunch-hour': photographic humanism and the social vision of Drum)
- The Drum decade : stories from the 1950s / edited by Michael Chapman, University of Natal Press, 2001, ISBN 0-86-980985-7
- Drum : an index to Africa's leading magazine, 1951-1965, Dorothy C. Woodson, University of Wisconsin-Madison, African Studies Programme, 1988, ISBN 0-94-261504-2
- The Beat of Drum : the story of a magazine that documented the rise of Africa as told by Drum's publisher, editors, contributors, and photographers, Heyns, Jacky, Ravan Press, 1982-1984 ISBN 0-62-006911-2 (the full set), ISBN 0-86-975219-7 (vol. 1)
- The Beat of Drum. Vol. 4, The Bedside book : Africa's leading magazine, editor in chief J.R.A. Bailey, editor H. Lunn, James R.A. Bailey, 1984, ISBN 0-62-006911-2
- Drum : South Africa's Black picture magazine, Creative Camera, 1984
- Drum : the making of a magazine, Anthony Sampson, Jonathan Ball, ISBN 1-86-842211-9
- Drum, Anthony Sampson, Hodder & Stoughton, 1983, ISBN 0-34-033383-9
- 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
- Who killed Mr Drum?, Sylvester Stein ; with a foreword by Anthony Sampson, Mayibuye Books, 1999, ISBN 1-86-808451-5
- 1952 Time magazine article – South African Drumbeats
- 1959 Time magazine article - Drum Beat in Africa
- DrumDrum (2004 film)Drum is a 2004 film based on the life of South African investigative journalist Henry Nxumalo, who worked for the popular Drum magazine, called "the first black lifestyle magazine in Africa." It was director Zola Maseko's first film and deals with the issues of apartheid and the forced removal of...
, a film about Drum and one of its journalists Henry NxumaloHenry NxumaloHenry Nxumalo, also known as Henry "Mr Drum" Nxumalo was a South African journalist.- Biography :He was born in 1917 in Margate, Natal, South Africa and attended the Fascadale Mission School... - Come Back, AfricaCome Back, AfricaCome Back, Africa is the second feature-length film written, produced, and directed by American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. The film had a profound effect on African Cinema, and remains of great historical and cultural importance as a document preserving the unique heritage of the...
, a film shot in Sophiatown in the 1950s with writing credits by Lionel RogosinLionel RogosinLionel Rogosin was a maverick independent American filmmaker who helped pioneer a form of non-fiction filmmaking influenced by the traditions of Robert Flaherty and Italian neorealism.-Early life:...
, Bloke Modisane and Lewis NkosiLewis NkosiLewis Nkosi was a South African writer and essayist. He was a multifaceted personality, and attempted every literary genre, literary criticism, poetry, drama, and novels.-Later life:... - Have you seen Drum recently?Have you seen Drum recently?Have you seen Drum recently? is a 1998 film which uses photographs from the Drum archives to tell the story of the magazine and documents its contribution to the cultural and political life of South Africa....
, a film by Jürgen SchadebergJürgen Schadeberg-Overview:Jürgen Schadeberg was born in Berlin in 1931. In 1950, he moved to South Africa to rejoin his family and joined Drum magazine as official photographer and layout artist....
using photographs drawn from the Drum archives - Come Back, Africa. Lionel RogosinLionel RogosinLionel Rogosin was a maverick independent American filmmaker who helped pioneer a form of non-fiction filmmaking influenced by the traditions of Robert Flaherty and Italian neorealism.-Early life:...
& Peter Davis, TE Publishers, ISBN 1-919855-17-3 (The book of the