The Jazz King - Ragtime (Part 3)

Dismay over Sebele’s behaviour was compounded by reports of his freely mixing with ordinary people among Johannesburg’s then emerging black proletariat. Village gossip was animated by stories of his participation in such urban vices of drinking, dancing and faction fighting. Although Sebele’s behaviour was perceived by many to be offensive to his royal status he was sharing in the common experience of most of peers at the time, including members of his own extended family.

While the engagement of Bakwena males, along with those from neighbouring merafe, as migrant labourers in South Africa can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century, it only became the norm from the late 1890s. This transformation occurred in the context of the onset of a period of disease and ecological crisis that was most notably manifested by the spread of the rinderpest (bolwane) epidemic, which in a few short months wiped out the majority of the region’s hoofed wildlife as well as livestock.