Bantu Men's Social Centre (BMSC)

A venue founded in downtown Johannesburg and sustained by white philanthropists and black professionals and teachers from the 1920s to the 1950s as a gathering point for the social, political and cultural elite of the black urban community. In 1934 it housed the National Thanksgiving (or Emancipation Centenary Celebration), which [according to Loren Kruger, 1999] in a sense gave rise to the notion of the “New African” in South African Black culture. Numerous local works by such divergent writers as Dhlomo and Fugard were performed here over the years. ***** BANTU MEN’S SOCIAL CENTRE: This was a social centre situated in Eloff Street Extension, adjacent to Dorkay House. Brian Brooke presented the grand dame of the English theatre, Dame Sybil Thorndike in a series of drama and poetry recitals with her husband, Sir Lewis Casson. They played for a black audience at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre in 1956. John Bolon staged a concert at the Bantu Men’s Social Centre in 1953, in a fund raising attempt for Father Trevor Huddleston. No-Good Friday, Athol Fugard’s first play, was staged here in conjunction with the Union of Southern African Artists. Fugard himself appeared in the play, together with his black cast – Bloke Modisane, Dan Poho, Steve Moloi, Ken Gampu, Gladys Sibisa and Zakes Mokae in 1958. *** (Tucker, 1997)

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