Kol

Ten issues of the Johannesburg-based literary magazine “Kol” were published between mid-1968 and the end of 1969. The main sponsor of the magazine is thought to have been a bookseller named Marcus de Jong, known for his unique selection of books in his shop in Melle Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

Kol was exclusively published in Afrikaans and had a notable editorial team that included prominent regional writers of the time, such as Chris Barnard, P.G. du Plessis, Louis Eksteen/Marthinus van Schoor, John Miles, and Bartho Smit. They were assisted by Hennie Aucamp, A.J. Coetzee, Richard Daneel, Abraham H. de Vries, Etienne le Roux, Johan Nel, Ian Raper, Anna Vorster, and others.

It is important to note that Apartheid was the dominant mindset, and flourishing in South Africa at the time. The magazine’s first issue featured satire by Van Wyk Louw, an exchange between André Brink and Bartho Smit discussing the characteristics of the 1960s moving into the 1970s, and a challenge to the editors by Breyten Breytenbach.

Brink expressed a desire for literature in the 1970s to engage with political and social issues, while Smit felt that the focus on race had been exhausted by the 1950s. Breytenbach, writing from Paris during his self-imposed exile, posed a series of questions to his South African colleagues, seeking their perspectives on various societal issues. He believed that other South Africans, including Zeke Mphahlele, Lewis Nkosi, Alex la Guma, Dennis Brutus, and more, were eager to know where the editors of Kol stood on these matters.

Interestingly, Breytenbach, despite his subsequent imprisonment in South Africa, played a pivotal role in a 1989 meeting between prominent Afrikaners from South Africa and the ANC at Victoria Falls. Breytenbach’s challenge sparked responses from individuals associated with Kol in the second issue, but he did not publish anything further in the magazine.

The contributors’ list may have been as lily-white as the acid blot-free paper that Kol was printed on at the time, but the magazine does provide insights into the liberal elements of Afrikaans culture during the late 60s and early 70s; at the height of the Apartheid era. The lack of sustained engagement and the publication’s ever-changing list of contributors might explain why Kol lasted only 17 months. The final line of the last issue indicated the end of the magazine: “Hiermee het Kol sy kol gesien” – ‘With this, Kol has seen its end.’

One notable development was the establishment of a prize for ‘political literature,’ which was awarded to Lina Spies for her poem ‘Widmung — Breyten Breytenbach.’ John Miles and Adam Small received honorable mentions. The reasons for Kol’s short lifespan and its relationship with more subversive magazines, such as Wurm, remain murky. However, there may have been a loss of confidence and focus in Afrikaner culture towards the end of 1969, given that there was mounting local and international resistance to the dominant regime, shortly before the emergence of black poetic voices from the townships in 1971.

In the end, the magazine’s intent seems to have been simply to provide a platform for both established and emerging Afrikaans writers and to offer commentary on South African culture in its broadest and mildest sense for the period, providing a perspective about those who stood in the relative ‘safe zone’ between Ophir, Bolt, and Wurm. A full set of Kol is included in the Colophon collection.

Words by Shane de Lange