Race, Culture, Narrative Voice, and the City in South African Literature

'Jim Comes to Joburg' - a culturally pervasive South African literary theme that was originally sparked by the 1949 film of the same name - has had a contagious influence on the development of apartheid era and post-apartheid era film, literary, and dramatic works, and, regardless of its questionable validity, its hand in shaping the perceptions of South African culture and ways of looking at life lived in these great, 'Golden Cities' and 'Eden-like' countryside cannot be denied. The image of the poor, inexperienced naïf from the country trekking to the great, 'Golden City' of Johannesburg looking for fame, fortune, or merely money for marriage; or to send money back to his village to support struggling family members, has been replicated by many different works of literature, film, and drama over the years. One would think that with the political death of apartheid, so too would this literary theme lose its strength and persistence, but as the ghosts of the apartheid era remain, (much as the 'ghosts' of Sophiatown haunt the poor, blighted Benades in Triomf), thus, so do the ghosts of Jim Comes to Joburg haunt many different modern South African works today.