Township

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

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

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

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

• 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 also has a similarly distinct legal meaning in South Africa's system of land title, which carries no racial connotations, but is little used in that sense in general in this sense outside of the legal and property zones.

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 ghetto reserved as places of residence for all blacks, in colonial times (1852-1947) as well as during 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.

Townships and theatre

Township theatre

In South Africa the term Township theatre refers specifically to theatre and performance events created and performed by black South Africans living in the townships that surround cities and towns of the country. It is also used to refer to a specific 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, also as 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 and 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.

Some global influences of the South African experience

Tangle

An interesting spin-off of the South African experience is the UK based touring company Tangle Theatre (referred to simply as Tangle). 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".

Township Theatre, New Jersey

Interestingly there is also a USA movie theatre called Township Theatre at 249 Pascack Road, Township of Washington, New Jersey, known by this name, though in this case it does not appear to have been inspired by the South African form.[3]

Sources

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

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

David B. Coplan

Gay Morris. 2007. "Townships, identity and collective theatre making by young South Africans: theatre as intervention." South African Theatre Journal Vol. 21, No. 1[4]

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

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

https://www.townshiptheatre.com/

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