William Modisane

William Modisane (28 August 1923 – 1 March 1986), better known as Bloke Modisane, was a South African writer, actor and journalist.

William "Bloke" Modisane, the eldest son of Joseph and Ma-Willie Modisane, grew up in Sophiatown, a multiracial suburb in Johannesburg, South Africa. His father was murdered and his sister died of malnutrition. To make ends meet, his mother ran a shebeen. As Modisane would write in his autobiography: "My mother wanted a better life for her children, a kind of insurance against poverty by trying to give me a prestige profession, and if necessary would go to jail whilst doing it."

He joined Drum magazine as a journalist and became one of "the Drum Boys" during Drum′s halcyon days in the 1950s, along with Henry Nxumalo, Can Themba, Es'kia Mphahlele and Lewis Nkosi. Modisane was also the jazz critic at Drum′s sister publication, the weekly tabloid Golden City Post.

His nickname of "Bloke" was inspired a character in the Leslie Charteris novels featuring "The Saint".

Modisane tried to facilitate non-racial progress in the arts by making concerts and theatre available to Black audiences and tried to further the efforts of the Arts Federation and the Union of South African Artists, both of which were non-racial.

He wrote a number of short stories that were published in Drum. One such story, "The Situation", derived from the Tsotsitaal (slang) for educated Blacks who rise above their station (i.e. situated above their station) but do not really fit into their new milieu. (Don Mattera mentioned this when describing the journalists: "There was a definite class division. We were in the streets, and they were in the desks. And we used to call such people situations.")

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