Daniel Canodoise "Can" Themba (21 June 1924 – 8 September 1967) was a South African short-story writer.

Early life

Themba was born in

Marabastad Marabastad (also called Asiatic Bazaar or Location) is a business area near the city centre of Pretoria, South Africa. The original ''Maraba Village'', situated just to the south of the present Marabastad, was founded and ruled by the Ndebele C ...

, near

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, but wrote most of his work in

Sophiatown Sophiatown , also known as Sof'town or Kofifi, is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. Sophiatown was a black cultural hub that was destroyed under apartheid, It produced some of South Africa's most famous writers, musicians, politicians a ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, South Africa. The town was destroyed under the provisions of the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

Group Areas Act Group Areas Act was the title of three acts of the Parliament of South Africa enacted under the apartheid government of South Africa. The acts assigned racial groups to different residential and business sections in urban areas in a system of u ...

, which reassigned ethnic groups to new areas. He was a student at Fort Hare University College, where he received an English degree (first-class) and a teacher's diploma. After moving to Sophiatown, he tried his hand at short-story writing. Temba entered the first short story contest of ''

Drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

'' (a magazine for urban black people concentrating mainly on investigative journalism), which he won. He subsequently worked for ''Drum'', where he became one of the "Drum Boys," together with

Henry Nxumalo Henry Nxumalo (1917 – 31 December 1957), also known as Henry "Mr Drum" Nxumalo, was a pioneering South African investigative journalist under apartheid. Early life He was born in 1917 in Margate, Natal, South Africa, and attended the Fasca ...

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Todd Matshikiza Todd Tozama Matshikiza (1921–1968) was a South African jazz pianist, composer and journalist. Overview Matshikiza came from a musical family. He graduated from St Peter's College in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, and went on to obtain a d ...

, Stan Motjuwadi and

Casey Motsisi Karabo Moses Motsisi (1932–1977), better known as Casey Motsisi or Casey "Kid" Motsisi, was a South African short story writer and journalist. Biography Casey Motsisi was born in Western Native Township (later Westbury) in Johannesburg in 193 ...

. They were later joined by

Lewis Nkosi Lewis Nkosi (5 December 1936 – 5 September 2010) was a South African writer, who spent 30 years in exile as a consequence of restrictions placed on him and his writing by the Suppression of Communism Act and the Publications and Entertainme ...

and

Nat Nakasa Nathaniel Ndazana Nakasa (12 May 1937 – 14 July 1965) better known as Nat Nakasa was a South African journalist and short story writer. Early life Nat Nakasa was born in outside Durban on 12 May 1937 to mother Alvina who was a teacher while h ...

. This group lived by the dictum: "Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse." Part of ''Drums ethos was investigative journalism. One of the aims was to show the realities and inequities of

. Themba decided to see how white churches would react to his attending services.

Migration to Swaziland

Growing frustrations with the restrictions of apartheid, caused him to move to

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

where he worked as a teacher. In 1966, he was declared a "statutory communist", as a result of which his works were banned in South Africa. His literary output was only readily available in the 1980s with the publication of two collections ''The Will to Die'' (1972) and ''The World of Can Themba'' (1985). In his stories, he described the frustrations of the university-educated urban black people; unavailable to realise their true potential because of the racial restrictions of apartheid and trying to balance their modern urban culture with the historical rural tribal one. His most famous story " The Suit" tells the story of Philemon, a middle-class lawyer, and his wife, Matilda, who live in Sophiatown. One day, Philemon hears that his wife is having an affair, so he goes home in the middle of the day and catches her ''in flagrante''. Her lover jumps out of the window but leaves behind his suit. Philemon then dreams up a strange and bizarre punishment. Matilda has to treat the suit as an honoured guest, feed it, entertain it and take it out for walks. This serves as a constant reminder of her adultery. A remorseful Matilda eventually dies of humiliation. Philemon then regrets his actions but it is all too late. (A stage version of "The Suit" was created by Mothobi Mutloatse and

Barney Simon Barney Simon (13 April 1932 – 30 June 1995, Johannesburg) was a South African writer, playwright and director. Early life The son of working-class Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, Simon discovered a love of theatre while working under director ...

at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg in the early 1990s, and was subsequently translated into French (''Le Costume'') by Barney Simon and

Jean-Claude Carrière Jean-Claude Carrière (; 17 September 1931 – 8 February 2021) was a French novelist, screenwriter and actor. He received an Academy Award for best short film for co-writing '' Heureux Anniversaire'' (1963), and was later conferred an Honorary ...

for a production by

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Shak ...

in Paris in 1994, and London in 2012.) Themba's increasing dependency on alcohol led to darker, introspective pieces such as ''Crepuscle'', ''The Will to Die'', and ''The Bottom of the Bottle''.

Death

He died of

Coronary thrombosis Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart at ...

in his flat in

Manzini Manzini may refer to: *Manzini, Eswatini, a town in the Manzini Region of Eswatini *Manzini Region, a region of Eswatini *Manzini (surname), an Italian surname See also *Roman Catholic Diocese of Manzini The Diocese of Manzini ( la, Manzinien(si ...

on 8 September 1967 .

Awards

* South African ''The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver'' for "Excellent achievement in literature, contributing to the field of journalism and striving for a just and democratic society in South Africa." (Posthumous)

Books

* ''Deep Cuts: graphic adaptations of stories by Can Themba'', Alex la Guma & Bessie Head / project co-ordinator: Neil Napper; editor: Peter Esterhuysen, Maskew Miller, Longman, 1993, * ''The Suit by Can Themba''; adapted by Chris van Wyk; illustrated by Renée Koch. Viva Books, 1994. * ''The Will To Die / Can Themba''; selected by Donald Stuart and Roy Holland, Heinemann, 1972. * ''The World of Can Themba: selected writings of the late Can Themba'', edited by Essop Patel, Ravan Press, 1985. * ''Requiem for Sophiatown''. London: Penguin, 2006.

References

Sources

Mike Nicol Mike Nicol is a South African writer and journalist. He was born in 1951 in Cape Town. Biography After completing his studies in Johannesburg, he worked as a journalist for the ''Leadership'' magazine. In 1978, he published ''Among the Souvenir ...

, ''Good-looking Corpse: World of Drum – Jazz and Gangsters, Hope and Defiance in the Townships of South Africa'', Secker & Warburg, 1991, * Anthony Adams & Ken Durham (eds), ''Writing from South Africa'', Cambridge University Press, , contains "Mob Passion" by D. Can Themba.

External links

Can Themba’s profile
for National Orders
"Simplicity is not a style"
– video interview about "The Suit" with Peter Brook and Andrew Dickson, ''The Guardian'', 25 May 2012. {{DEFAULTSORT:Themba, Can 1924 births 1967 deaths People from Johannesburg People from Pretoria South African journalists South African male short story writers South African short story writers University of Fort Hare alumni South African emigrants to Eswatini Recipients of the Order of Ikhamanga 20th-century South African writers 20th-century South African male writers 20th-century journalists