SOPHIATOWN - MEMORANDUM
ACT 1 SCENE 1
2.1.1. They refer to Sophiatown
Other names: Softown, Sophia, Kasbah
2.1.2. [Link]. We are staying in Sophiatown
[Link]. What does this suggest about:
(a) The setting is Sophiatown and the time is 1950 during the apartheid
regime
(b) The people are facing eviction from their houses and relocation to
Meadowlands, because of apartheid legislation.
(c) They feel angry/upset/defiant/provocative/resistive/disobedient/
obstinate
2.1.3.
Gangs / gang Shebeens Musicians Journalists/ Struggle Cinemas
leaders /singers writers leaders
Kortboy Back of the Dolly Bloke Tambo Odin
Moon Rathebe Modisane
Americans Thity-Nine Jazz Boy Can Themba Luthuli Balansky’s
Steps
Berliners Manhattan Nat Nakasa Mandela
Brothers
Gestapo Lewis Nkosi Father
Huddleston
Vultures
2.1.4. He is the narrator. He tells the story
2.1.5. He is a journalist. Journalists write and report events and write stories about
events. This is also what a narrator does.
2.1.6. The past tense indicates that this happened in the past. It is a record of the past.
2.1.7. You have a freehold if you own the house you live in. If you lease/rent it, you do
not have a freehold.
2.1.8. It was centrally situated: it was close to their places of work.
They had freeholds.
They preferred to live in a multiracial suburb instead of an apartheid-legislated
black township.
They were free to mix with all races, professions and classes.
There was a rich culture of music, dance and discussions.
2.1.9. Boxing
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2.1.10 DRUM magazine
.
2.1.11 In this scene, Jakes thinks up an idea to write a new kind of story. What will this
. be about? Choose the best description from the list below and explain why you
chose it.
A a white woman living in Sophiatown
He placed an advert in the DRUM magazine for a Jewish woman to come and
share the house where he lived with other boarders.
2.1.12 He was illiterate. He had no education.
.
2.1.13 He runs a gambling game, fahfee, for a Chinese man.
.
2.1.14 Jakes speaks in standard, “educated” English.
. Mingus speaks tsotsitaal.
2.1.15 Mingus belongs to a gang. Gangsters were usually not educated and they spoke
. tsotsitaal, which gave them a feeling of belonging.
2.1.16 Racial segregation implicates the separation either by law or action of people of
. different races in all manner of daily activities such as education, housing and the
use of public facilities. These laws prevented black people in SA to use certain
facilities.
ACT 1 SCENE 2
2.2.1 (a) It is unfamiliar to people in Sophiatown
. (b) It is ironic that learners have to
2.2.2 She is unhappy about it and she is jealous.
.
2.2.3 Racial conflict
.
2.2.4 B they would find it funny and laugh at it
.
He is the clown in the play. He is behaving in a silly and amusing way.
2.2.5 His story will be sensational. It will be about a white girl living in Sophiatown.
. Jakes will write a story or report on these events for DRUM.
2.2.6 The actors imitate the sound typewriters make. It emphasizes the idea of writing.
. The reader is reminded that Jakes and all other writers report (type articles) on
these events for DRUM or other magazines. At this stage they are reporting or
writing stories about the white “Jewish girl who’s living down the street” p 27
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2.2. (a) Ruth’s perspective
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Ruth was naïve and infatuated by the idea of living with people of other
cultures – she was curious
She is determined to fit in
She does not want to be treated different
It was seen as quite ‘daring’, even ‘írresponsible’ in the 1950s living in a
multiracial suburb
Ruth feels a duty to be more involved in the struggle against social
oppression
She battles with her feelings of social responsibility especially when
Princess makes her feel unwelcome and expresses her dislike of Ruth
openly
She adapts to the life of black people in apartheid SA and does not want to
return to Yeoville, her white privileged life.
(b) Perspective of the inhabitants of 65 Gerty Street
It was awkward
Not known to have happened before
They first view Ruth as a spoilt rich girl
They felt uncomfortable with her in the house as it was illegal for a white
person to live in a black suburb
Princess is openly hostile towards Ruth
The accept the fact that Ruth’s intentions are pure and that she simply
wanted to see what life is like for black people in comparison to her life in
Yeoville
Jakes thinks she has guts to live in Sophiatown
ACT 1 SCENE 3
2.3.1. Ruth was spoilt and privileged
The police would raid their house if they knew a white girl was living with them
The gangsters was a threat – Ruth would not be safe from the gangsters
2.3.2. B she is jealous of Ruth and the attention Mingus pays Ruth
She realises Mingus is trying to impress Ruth by ordering Charlie to find her a bath
2.3.3. Princess is a “good-time girl”
She is a prostitute and someone undeserving of respect
“Good-time girls” in Sophiatown were mostly poor, uneducated and without family.
They survived by being a gangster’s “good-time girl”
Princess depends on Mingus for food and clothes
Because she depends on him she has to tolerate his beats and insults
Quote:
Mingus tells Princess: “that means you shaddup and listens or I’ll have to cut you
up.”
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2.3.4. Regina Brooks was a white woman living with a black man in Sophiatown in the
1950s.
Immorality Act.
2.3.5. (a) To get a bathtub and to kill the dogs whose barking kept Ruth awake at
night.
(b) He wants to impress Ruth so he can use her to his advantage
(c) He lacks morals and has little respect for women, seeing them only as
objects to be used.
(d) A gun
2.3.6. Ruth is curious to see how people live in Sophiatown and to experience it,
because it is a different kind of place from her white suburb.
2.3.7. Ruth is upset. She does not want to appear privileged and wants to fit in with the
household.
2.3.8. It is used to brew alcohol for the shebeen illegally.
2.3.9.
(a) Debate Ruth’s viewpoint.
She does not want to be treated differently because she is white.
She wants to experience exactly what the other women in the
house experience on a daily basis (as black women)
(b) Debate Princess’s viewpoint.
Princess knows the men have respect for Ruth. They do not respect
her as she is a “good-time girl” and not worthy of respect.
Princess has no plan to make Ruth feel at home as she is jealous of
Ruth as Mingus is paying too much attention to her.
The fact that Ruth is white causes all the boarders of the house to
treat her differently than they treat Princess and according to
Princess that will never change.
Princess thought Ruth causes disruptions as all the sleeping
arrangements had to change, the dogs had to be killed and she got
a bathtub, a privilege she never had.
2.3.10.
(a) She realises they see her as a ‘different’ because she is white and she
should just be herself. She is willing to adapt and will be less expressive
about things. She will make sacrifices.
(b) Jakes words “Well, things settled down and within weeks Ruth seemed
like part of the family”
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2.3.11.
Differences and Similarities
Jakes Mingus
Educated and an intellectual Illiterate
Speaks good English Speaks tsotsitaal
Works as a journalist Earns money by robbing, stealing
Competent writer Gangster
His house is called “House of Truth” as they His house was a place where stolen goods
discussed political and intellectual issues were stored
They were both in their late twenties
2.3.12. Mingus has more reasons to change his circumstances:
Stop his crime activity
Respect women
Get educated
OR
Jakes:
Is ambitious
Can further his career easily as he is intelligent and educated
Work at reaching his full potential in a new SA
ACT 1 SCENE 4
2.4.1. Ruth is eager to learn it.
She learns quite well and manages to engage in fast conversation / dialogue with
Fahfee and Mingus.
2.4.2.
C she finds learning tsotsitaal as well as the many other things she needs
to know to live in Sophiatown, too much
Support from text: “You want me to learn a whole new language, and you want me
to have a special look in my eye, and you want to klap me until I love you.”
E she finds Charlie’s having to fetch things for her tiresome
Support from text: “I don’t want you to call Charlie, That’s one of the reasons I’m
tired.”
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2.4.3. (a) Fahfee is suggesting they should get married.
(b) No, he is joking. He is testing Ruth’s progress with tsotsitaal.
2.4.4. Mingus has no respect for women and controls them with violence and bullying.
2.4.5. Ruth believes women should be respected and free. They should not be controlled
by men and especially not through violence and fear.
2.4.6. B it is complex to define what makes you who you are
You can be defined as Jewish, without practising the Jewish faith or speaking
Hebrew, but just by following certain Jewish traditions.
She is South African and is classed as white and she has certain political views.
She is many things all at once.
ACT 1 SCENE 5
2.5.1. She wants to be accepted in Sophiatown like anybody else.
She is determined to integrate into the Sophiatown culture, by learning both
tsotsitaal and the Fahfee symbols.
2.5.2. The Diamond Lady
2.5.3. When Fahfee first meets Ruth, she gives him this number when he asks her for any
number. The people in the house call her the Diamond Lady.
2.5.4. Optimistic/confident/hopeful/cheery tone
ACT 1 SCENE 6
2.6.1. She tells Ruth that her mother sells alcohol illegally, her brother is a gangster and
robber and Princess is a “good-time” girl/prostitute.
2.6.2. Ruth wants her to write “nice things” about them.
She should write that her mother and brother support her and pay for her school
fees and that Princess gives her presents.
Ruth believes there is more than one truth.
2.6.3. “Street with no name”
2.6.4. It was a glamorous film about Chicago gangsters. Sophiatown gangsters imitated
the style of dress and speech of the American gangsters they saw in these films.
2.6.5. They want to pretend to be glamorous gangsters for a moment.
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2.6.6. No. He is Chinese.
He would not be classified as black and would not have to move to a designated
“black” area.
2.6.7. There will be no “life” as they know it in Sophiatown: no music, drinking, dancing,
political discussion, interacting with people of different races, social classes and
professions.
2.6.8. C slow
E mournfully
2.6.9. They show their defiance/resistance/disobedience
They show they are still lively/energetic/spirited/enthusiastic/forceful
ACT 1 SCENE 7
2.7.1. C a white girl living in Sophiatown
2.7.2. The truth would not sell or would not attract readers to buy the magazine, as
people want to read sensational stories
2.7.3. Identities are all “confused”.
The religious beliefs of the mixture of people living in Sophiatown are not distinct.
They are both similar and different as the people are in the suburb.
Jakes sees this as a positive thing.
2.7.4. It says the people are to be evicted from the house on a certain date.
2.7.5. He will not get a house in Meadowlands as he is coloured. He will be homeless.
He is not “black” and nobody made provision for coloured people being evicted
for an alternative livelihood.
