A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries.

STILL BEING WRITTEN AND EDITED

The word township

General definition of the word township

Although the term township is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule.

In the UK a township used to be an ancient unit of administration in England identical in area with or a division of a parish.

In Australia, Canada, Scotland, and parts of the United States, the term now refers to settlements too small or scattered to be considered urban.

Thus, for example, the word township can refer to four things in the USA, according to the online Miriam-Webster dictionary[1]:

a unit of local government in some northeastern and north central states usually having a chief administrative officer or board

an unorganized subdivision of the county in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont

an electoral and administrative district of the county in the southern U.S.

a division of territory in surveys of U.S. public land containing 36 sections or 36 square miles

The term township has also served as a similarly distinct legal meaning in South Africa's system of land title legislation over the years (thus not carrying any racial connotations), but it has been little used in this sense outside of the legal and property fields.

A specifically South African definition and use of the term

In South Africa, the terms township and location usually refer to the often underdeveloped, racially segregated, urban areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of apartheid, were built on the periphery of towns and cities. More specifically, the term township (or black township) is the name used specifically to refer to the urban ghettos reserved as places of residence for all blacks, from colonial times (1852-1947) to the time of the apartheid regime (1948-1994). (Referred to in Afrikaans as a "lokasie", woonbuurt or swart woonbuurt.)

Such areas were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities, often as temporary places with scant infrastructure, and in the notorious 20th century relocation programme large numbers of people were relocated there from their residences in the newly declared "white areas" of the various towns and cities. A matter of enormous frustration and anger, and reflected in a large number of the literary and theatrical works produced in the second half of the 20th century in particular.

Though the attitude to the townships as residential areas have changed substantially and become less negative and adapted to the new circumstances since 1994, the term itself is still in use in the country - though the early version of "location" is seldom used.

Some prominent townships

Langa

Sophiatown

Soweto

Townships and theatre

As in any residential community, the South African townships tended to develop their own means of entertainment and artistic expression, drawing on the performance and creative local and international traditions, imported by the people living there. The result has been a gradual blooming of a number of quintessential South African artistic and performance forms. Often referred to as Township theatre.

Township theatre in South Africa

In South Africa the term refers to theatre and performance events created and performed by black South Africans living in the townships that surround cities and towns of the country. In this sense it is allied to / an aspect of what is more broadly known as Black theatre in the country and internationally.

It is more specifically used to refer to a particular type of theatrical performance and the texts of such works written/created by "township" authors and theatre-makers.

The township musical

A term used to refer to a uniquely South African form of musical melodrama which evolved in the various black urban townships of South Africa, beginning as a form of township theatre, and evolving into a particularly powerful form of political and protest theatre.

See further Township musical

Township venues

A reference to venues in urban, (black) townships utilized for theatrical performances. These ranged from formal community halls, school halls and church halls to private homes, shebeens, streets, even graveyards (during funerals).

In the run-up to and especially after the fall of Apartheid and the new dispensation in 1994, the race restrictions fell away, so township theatre productions increasingly went on to play at urban theatre venues. At the same time the townships gradually became larger and economically more empowered. So a number of new venues arose, including the Soweto Theatre in Jabulani (2012),

A number of community theatre festivals also arose to feature such work, for example the annual Ikhwezi Community Theatre Festival hosted by the Baxter Theatre since 1998.

Theatre in Soweto

Some global influences of the South African experience

Tangle Theatre, UK

An interesting spin-off of the South African experience is the UK based touring company Tangle Theatre (referred to simply as Tangle in some cases). According to their website[2], the founders were "long been inspired by the legacy of ‘township theatre’ in South Africa during the 1950s" and since their founding in 2009 their productions "champion multiple global theatre influences — Southern African township and collective theatre making techniques, Zimbabwean oral culture and some European approaches. The work brings together scripted dialogue, storytelling, live music and song, poetry and dance in a distinctive style drawing on the traditions of many cultures".

Actually the Tangle website gives quite a useful overview of the evolution and nature of the South African form and its role in their own work[3].

The Township Theatre, New Jersey

Interestingly there is also a USA movie theatre by this name at 249 Pascack Road, Township of Washington, New Jersey However, in this case it does not appear to have been inspired by the South African form.[4]

Sources

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/township

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Township_(South_Africa)

David B. Coplan. 2008. In Township Tonight! :South Africa's Black City Music and Theatre. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hlalethwa, Zaza. 2019 "A call for township theatres", Mail & Guardian 15 March 2019[5]

Kruger, Loren 1997b. The drama of country and city: tribalization, urbanization and theatre under apartheid. Journal of Southern African Studies, 23(4):565-584.

Kruger, Loren 1999a. The Drama of South Africa: Plays, Pageants and Publics Since 1910. London: Routledge.

Gay Morris. 2007. "Townships, identity and collective theatre making by young South Africans: theatre as intervention." South African Theatre Journal Vol. 21, No. 1[6]

Tomaselli, Keyan 1981a. Black South African Theatre: Text and Context. English in Africa, 8(1):51-58

Tomaselli, Keyan 1981c. The Semiotics of Alternative Theatre in South Africa. Critical Arts, 2(1):14-33.

Tomaselli, Keyan & Muller, Johan 1987. Class, race, and oppression: metaphor and metonymy in ’Black’ South African theatre. Critical Arts, 4(3):40-58.

https://www.tangletheatre.co.uk/journal/tangles-inheritance-theatre-of-township

https://www.townshiptheatre.com/

Go to the ESAT Bibliography