were located at the Soweto and Kingsway Campus libraries. I then requested to have these resources sent to FADA library’s reserve shelf for the duration of the assignment. Though students were required to use the pre-selected readings in the construction of their essays, to hone their research skills, they were also required to use a minimum of two additional readings sourced independently. The resulting studentwritten biographical essays looked at topics such as sports in 1950s South Africa, the Group Areas Act’s negative effects on sports development, clothing worn in sports, and the symbolic meaning of black identities in wearing these clothes in apartheid-era South Africa. Such topics were explored in essays on Constance Molefe (a Soweto-based teenage tennis player) and Sewsunker Sewgolum (a Durban-based golfer). The second task of styling and visually communicating a contemporary fashion look informed by the biographical essays, also needed the preparation of resources. Similar to the essay-writing exercise, we presented students with a folder of specially selected fonts and page texturing images for the cover designs, in case students wanted to age the final photographs by giving them a nostalgic effect similar to 1950s and 1960s Drum magazine covers. We then created an instructional video to demonstrate how to apply these functions by using Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Students then photographed their magazine covers using themselves, their friends, and their family members as models. Additionally, they used existing clothes to style the photoshoots. Regarding location, the UJ students used the UJ sports fields and lecture venues to shoot the covers. Below I present some student covers with the original Drum photographs from the 1950s-1960s of the individuals they researched. After the lecture series, students were presented with a pre-selected list of individuals to choose from for their biographical essays. One of the objectives in selecting individuals was to look beyond the apparent individuals with whom Drum magazine had previously been associated. Thus, individuals like Miriam Makeba and Dolly Rathebe were purposively excluded from the list. Rather, the rationale was to grow the archive by selecting individuals who had not attracted a lot of public attention, such as Hazel Futa, Gertie Williams, Sonny Pillay, Khabi Mngoma, and Constance Molefe. Because of minimal documentation, we sourced and prepared folders that included readings about these individuals. In the case of UJ, some resources about them Figure 2: A Drum May 1955 photograph of Patricia Jobodwane, the first black youngest female student to enroll in Fort Hare University’s medicine programme. The resulting student-written biographical essays looked at topics such as sports in 1950s South Africa, the Group Areas Act’s negative effects on sports development, clothing worn in sports, and the symbolic meaning of black identities in wearing these clothes in apartheid-era South Africa. Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2022 42
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