Bo-tsotsi : the youth gangs of Soweto, 1935-1976

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Bibliographic Information

Bo-tsotsi : the youth gangs of Soweto, 1935-1976

Clive Glaser

（Social history of Africa）

Heinemann , James Currey , David Philip, c2000

  • : Heinemann cloth
  • : Heinemann paper
  • : James Currey cloth
  • : James Currey paper

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [193]-205) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: James Currey paper ISBN 9780852556405

Description

Crime and the closely-related issues of youth culture and unemployment, are among the most important social concerns facing post-apartheid leadership in South Africa. The gang subculture emerged in a context of social deprivationand stunted mobility. Young urban men, out of school and unemployed, coalesced into gangs to create a world with its own rules, style and status structures. Drawing on powerful street and neighbourhood identities, gangs provided young males with companionship, a sense of security, and dignity. The book also depicts the relationship between political organizations and gang constituencies. Gangs were extremely difficult to mobilize on a formal level. Although in some respects politicized, and sympathetic to political campaigns, youth gangs found the respectable methods and intellectual discourse of political organizations alienating. While sensitive to the plight of black urbanyouth, the ANC recoiled from mobilizing the volatile and potentially violent gangs. Other liberation movements, such as the PAC and the Black Consciousness Movement, made concerted attempts to appeal to the gangs but, ultimately,they were forced to dissociate themselves.

Table of Contents

  • "Being manly" - themes in the history of urban youth gangs
  • "their playgrounds are the streets" - the juvenile delinquency crisis on the Rand, 1935-1960
  • the Tsotsi era - youth gangs on the Witwatersrand during the 1940s and 1950s
  • "irresponsible youths" - students, Tsotsis and the Africanists, 1944-1960
  • "idle and undesirable" - relocation, gangs and youth identity in Soweto during the 1960s
  • the time of the Hazels - the new wave of big gangs in Soweto, 1968-1976
  • "1976 stopped all our fun" - Soweto gangs and the rise of student politics, 1970-1976
  • epilogue.
Volume

: James Currey cloth ISBN 9780852556900

Description

Crime and the closely-related issues of youth culture and unemployment, are among the most important social concerns facing post-apartheid leadership in South Africa. This is a textured social history of African youth gangs in theJohannesburg/Soweto area from the emergence of a juvenile delinquency crisis in the 1930s through to the student-led uprising of 1976. The gang subculture emerged in a context of social deprivation and stunted mobility. Young urban men, out of school and unemployed, coalescedinto gangs to create a world with its own rules, style and status structures. Drawing on powerful street and neighbourhood identities, gangs provided young males with companionship,a sense of security, and dignity. The book also depicts the relationshipbetween political organizations and gang constituencies. Gangs were extremely difficult to mobilize on a formal level. Although in some respects politicized,and sympathetic to political campaigns, youth gangs found the respectable methods and intellectual discourse of political organizations alienating. While sensitive to the plight of black urban youth, the ANC recoiled from mobilizing the volatile and potentially violent gangs. Other liberation movements, such as the PAC and the Black Consciousness Movement, made concerted attempts to appeal to the gangs but, ultimately, they were forced to dissociate themselves.

Table of Contents

  • "Being manly" - themes in the history of urban youth gangs
  • "their playgrounds are the streets" - the juvenile delinquency crisis on the Rand, 1935-1960
  • the Tsotsi era - youth gangs on the Witwatersrand during the 1940s and 1950s
  • "irresponsible youths" - students, Tsotsis and the Africanists, 1944-1960
  • "idle and undesirable" - relocation, gangs and youth identity in Soweto during the 1960s
  • the time of the Hazels - the new wave of big gangs in Soweto, 1968-1976
  • "1976 stopped all our fun" - Soweto gangs and the rise of student politics, 1970-1976
  • epilogue.

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