Busisiwe Victoria Mhlongo, popularly known as Busi Mhlongo, was born on 28 October 1947 at Inanda, near Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.

Basil Sipho Neo Bridgeman Bikitsha, known as “Doc” Bikitsha, was born on 19 November 1930 at the Bridgman Memorial Hospital in Mayfair, Johannesburg.

After passing Matric, Mr Bikitsha went to study at Pius X11 University College, then known as Roma College, in Lesotho. He was expelled for allegedly assaulting a fellow student, and came back to South Africa where he continued his studies at the Normal College near Pretoria.

Background

Fort Calata was born on 5 November 1956. Fort’s grandfather, the Reverend Canon James Arthur Calata, was the Secretary General of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1936 to 1949. In 1956, when Fort was born, Canon Calata was one of the accused in the Treason Trial. Fort Calata and his wife Nomonde met in 1974 in Cradock. In 1979, the couple lived in Dimbaza, where Calata worked as a teacher.

Matthew Goniwe was born on 27 December 1947 in Lingelihle Township on the outskirts of Cradock in the Eastern Cape. His parents David and Elizabeth were farm labourers.  He was the youngest of eight children. Goniwe attended St James' Primary school and afterwards attended Sam Xhallie Secondary School, where he obtained his junior certificate.  As a boy, Goniwe played rugby and took part in boxing for a club in the township.  His love of music led him to join, at an early age, the Cradock Male Voices under the leadership of his brother, Jacques.

The establishment of Drum Magazine in the 1950s, notwithstanding the newly-elected Nationalist Party’s policy of Apartheid, reflected the dynamic changes that were taking place among the new urban Black South African – African, Indian and Coloured – communities. 

The magazine became an important platform for a new generation of writers and photographers who changed the way Black people were represented in society. This year marks the magazine’s 60^th anniversary, which we are celebrating by publishing new material and key profiles over the next month.

In this period early African political organisations were formed; these organisations precipitated the formation of the African National Congress.