Abstract
This study is an investigation of how the white English Language Press reported
on black gangs in Soweto and their crimes during the 1940s and 1950s. The aim
of this investigation is to increase our understanding of white English-speaking
racial attitudes during the 1940s and the 1950s by investigating white
perceptions of criminal gangs in Soweto during this time. To provide a yardstick,
the study includes a discussion of our present state of knowledge on the topic as
reflected in the secondary literature about gangsters and their crimes.
During the 1940s black gangsters and their crimes were very seriously
underreported compared to what we now know to have been the situation at that
time. This suggests that English-speaking whites were not particularly interested
in black gangsters and their crimes at this time. The reports that did appear
reflected the attitude that unemployed blacks, whether they were part of gangs or
not, had to be expelled from urban areas as they were all perceived to be
gangsters. The headlines, reports and letters on black gang crime worked
together to imply that blacks were criminals by nature.
In the 1950s the level of reporting improved, as compared to the 1940s and
reflected a much more serious concern about “Tsotsis”. The detailed
descriptions of Tsotsis, their fashion and the language that they spoke reflect this
concern. But the newspapers failed to indicate that not all young men who fitted
their descriptions were Tsotsis. This omission strengthened white readers’
negative perception about young black men in general instead of distinguishing
between criminals and other elements.
Today, we know far more about black migrant and urban gangs and their crimes
during this period from modern secondary sources than was reported in the white
English Press at the time. This underreporting must have helped whites to
remain ignorant of the real state of affairs in the black communities of the area.
Both in the 1940s and 1950s the press concentrated on the harmful influence
and criminal activities of gangs, which further strengthened the prevailing
negative perceptions about young black men, who would all be perceived as
“Thieving Blacks”.
Mr. GR Allen