Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of Interviewees
- Map
- Chapter One Origins
- Chapter Two A Right To Live In The City
- Chapter Three Place Of Defiance
- Chapter Four Uncertain Times
- Chapter Five Good Times
- Chapter Six Work And Education
- Chapter Seven Inspired By Black Consciousness
- Chapter Eight The Beginning Of The Uprising
- Chapter Nine The Making Of A Middle Class
- Chapter Ten Making A Revolution
- Selected References
- Chapter Eleven Photographic Essay
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Chapter Five - Good Times
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2019
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- List of Interviewees
- Map
- Chapter One Origins
- Chapter Two A Right To Live In The City
- Chapter Three Place Of Defiance
- Chapter Four Uncertain Times
- Chapter Five Good Times
- Chapter Six Work And Education
- Chapter Seven Inspired By Black Consciousness
- Chapter Eight The Beginning Of The Uprising
- Chapter Nine The Making Of A Middle Class
- Chapter Ten Making A Revolution
- Selected References
- Chapter Eleven Photographic Essay
- Miscellaneous Endmatter
Summary
IN ORLANDO, AS ELSEWHERE IN SOWETO, SOCIAL LIFE TENDED TO CENTRE on shebeens and local clubs. This was true even in Mpanza's shantytown, as the Mazibuko brothers recalled.
It was the shelters, then the Masakeng, and as you go forward from that place there were spots where people used to have their drinks even though we did not drink then. The liquor that was drunk at that time, they used to dig it in holes.Yes, and they did that so that the police could not arrest the sellers. ‘There comes the police,’ we would say. That beer was dug underground and remained cold always. They will close the holes again and seal it so that the police cannot even trace the beer underground. A person who went to that house to buy beer was expected to open the ground and pour beer for himself. You went there to buy carrying your money, the old lady will take the money and a person would go and dig for his beer because the old lady did not want to involve herself with being arrested. A person went to pour beer for himself even if he can pour more for himself … the risk was his. If the police find you in the hole, they arrest you … but it was nice, man.
In the established areas such as Orlando West a more sophisticated culture of indulgence took root, as Wilfred Thabethe noted.
We used to go to the Pelican. And there were some chosen shebeens … yes, Club Pelican. And we had some shebeens around Orlando East. We had to go to Rockville, there was Rowena's place and Lekodi.
The Pelican Club in the 1970s became one of the main centres of musical entertainment in Orlando and the broader Soweto. Rita Tandy reminisces in an interview, and recalls the day her brother, who had been overseas for a long time, returned home and decided to open the club:
He came back and said, ‘You know, I want to live a quiet life.’ And then he decided to open a night club. The name Pelican – it's amazing how people refer to it as a bird, it was never actually a bird.
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- Information
- Orlando West, SowetoAn illustrated history, pp. 39 - 50Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2012