The Marabi Dance

(Paperback)

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The Marabi Dance is the striking coming-of-age novel following aspiring singer, Martha, as she falls in love with the underground culture of Marabi music in 1930s South Africa. Originally banned from publication, Modikwe Dikobe's novel defiantly captures the social climate of South Africa in the years before apartheid. Growing up in the slums of Johannesburg, Martha is fascinated by the lively sounds of Marabi music, with its jazz influences, vibrant style, and African rhythms. But while her passion for parties, singing, and dancing is shared by her own generation, her parents can only see a dangerous underworld full of gangs and violence. To make matters worse, her crush on the handsome and talented Marabi musician, George, is developing into something more despite her father's plans to marry her off to her cousin. Stuck between the values of the past and a rapidly changing world, Martha struggles to see a future that won't betray either her parents or herself. 'It's beauty is in the caring of the characters for one another; and in the subtle slow paced encounters... Novels as emotionally true as this about South Africa are rare.' Ros de Lanerolle

Reviews

Ros de Lanerolle"}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":6903,"3":{"1":0},"4":{"1":2,"2":16777215},"5":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"7":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"8":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":2}]},"9":0,"10":0,"12":0,"14":{"1":2,"2":0},"15":"Arial"}" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">It's beauty is in the caring of the characters for one another; and in the subtle slow paced encounters... Novels as emotionally true as this about South Africa are rare. -- Ros de Lanerolle

Author Bio

Modikwe Dikobe was the pseudonym of Marks Rammitloa, a novelist, poet, and activist born in 1914 in the former Province of the Transvaal, South Africa.\n\nDuring the 1930s, he attended one of the Communist Partys night schools where he learned to read and write. His social activism began in the early 1940s when he began advocating for the rights of tenants as well as organising bus boycotts and protesting against the practice of segregation. He eventually became the secretary of the Alexandra Squatters Resistance, a movement necessitated by high rents in and around Johannesburg.\n\nDikobe went on to write for a newpaper called Inkululeko, meaning Freedom, and was briefly arrested for his political activities, with a ban placed on his writings. In 1963, he took a job as a nightwatchman and began writing The Marabi Dance. He later released a collection of poetry called The Dispossessed in 1983.\n\nDikobe died in 2005."}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":6911,"3":{"1":0},"4":{"1":2,"2":16777215},"5":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"6":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"7":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":2}]},"8":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"9":0,"10":0,"12":0,"14":{"1":2,"2":0},"15":"Arial"}" style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Modikwe Dikobe was the pseudonym of Marks Rammitloa, a novelist, poet, and activist born in 1914 in the former Province of the Transvaal, South Africa. During the 1930s, he attended one of the Communist Partys night schools where he learned to read and write. His social activism began in the early 1940s when he began advocating for the rights of tenants and protesting segregation. He eventually became the secretary of the Alexandra Squatters Resistance, a movement necessitated by high rents in and around Johannesburg. Dikobe went on to write for the newspaper Inkululeko and was briefly arrested for his political activities, with a ban placed on his writings. In 1963, he took a job as a nightwatchman and began writing The Marabi Dance. He later released a collection of poetry, The Dispossessed, in 1983. Dikobe died in 2005.