Musicians in South Africa - Part I

PART I

South Africa is the country (the region is called Southern Africa) in the southernmost part of the African continent. The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle in the area. In subsequent years, the English and French also played an important role in the colonization of the region. Today, South Africa has eleven languages though Afrikaans is probably the most significant language since the colonial period.

On 24th April 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. This was the year that marked the end of apartheid and the birth of a new nation in South African also. In many ways, the South Africa flag is a symbol of the newly found rights and freedom of the black communities (2).

Although the colors have no official meaning attached to them the South African flag incorporates the colors black, green and yellow of Nelson Mandela's political party, the African National Congress and the former Boer republics flags (red, white, and blue). The Y shape represents the convergence of South Africa's diverse society and the desire for unity. The South African flag is basically made up of former South African flags and the past meanings of the colors were Red for bloodshed, blue for open blue skies, green for the land, black for the black people, white for the European people and yellow for the natural resources such as gold.

From the mid-seventeenth century to the close of the twentieth century (up to 1994), South Africa was ruled by different groups of Europeans. They called themselves as ‘The Afrikaner Nationalist Party’ from 1948 onwards. At that time, the Nationalist government was to use the Bantu-language, which is the general term for over 400 different ethnic groups of people in Africa, from Cameroon to South Africa (3). They have been treated as the white people’s slaves, labouring in both the field of agriculture andindustry. However, the government was not willing to allow the Bantus to be permanent residence

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(1)Map from Carol A. Muller, South Africa Music, A century of Traditions in Transformation, (California, 2004)

(2)Carol A. Muller, South Africa Music, A century of Traditions in Transformation, (California, 2004), Chapter one, p.1
(3)Ibid, Chapter one, p.11

in white urban area (4).

For instance, the Nationalist government established the geographical boundaries to separate the different races that lived together. The black people became ruled by white. They lived without rights to become permanent residents and worked only as a temporary labour. Each “homeland” was identified by language and culture, for example, Zululand was only for Zulu people who spoke Zulu as their mother tongue (5). The government also introduced the Apartheid Legislation law to suppress the indigenous musician and prevent their public performances of their native music. Therefore, many musicians protested against the government for their discrimination and for trying to take possession of their land through the music. (for example, Syncretic black “freedom songs” and the hymns of “Nkosi Sikelel’ in Africa”). At that time, one state was divided into eleven countries. It was the period of Apartheid in South Africa.

During this period of major political and social upheaval (Apartheid), the Nationalist government attempted to suppress, restrict and control the people’s so-called controversial music from being heard. This was done by means of a list of censors.

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(4) Ibid, Chapter one, p.11
(5) Carol A. Muller, South Africa Music, A century of Traditions in Transformation, (California, 2004), Chapter one, p.16

The Direct Way of Restriction:-

Broadcasting

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the Broadcasting Company in South Africa which is owned by the state, so they have the right to decide which songs can be played on the radio. At first, the company was concerned about the lyrics whether they might be political or rebellious in nature or whether they were overtly sexual or not. However, SABC went even further to isolate the people from different ethnic and grouping the same race together. If the songs included the mixing of language, they were not allowed to be played on air such as the song performed by groups like Sankomota (6) and the Oscar award-winning that the song dedicated to Nelson Mandela performed by Stevie Wonder was banned. Obviously, the government was making very afford to separate the white people from people of all other colours and attempted to filter out the indigenous ‘black’ cultures from being mixed with whites.

At times, many musicians from different racial backgrounds were united against the Nationalist government for oppressing musicians in South Africa. These include Johnny Clegg (England) and Sipho Mchunu (Black musician), who continued to play the Zulu culture music on stage even when it was not allowed by government at the time. Zulu culture music is the voiced palatal ‘click’ is an aural icon of the thud of the foot hitting the ground after a high frontal kick in the Zulu men’s dance styles called“ngoma”(7).

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(6)Michael Drewett, “Music in the struggle to end apartheid”, Policing Pop, Edited by Martin Cloonan and Rebee Garofals, (Temple

University Press, 2003), p154-158
(7)Louise Meintjes, “Shoot the Sergeant, Shatter the Mountain: The Production of Masculinity in Zulu Ngoma Song and Dance in post –

Apartheid South Africa, Ethnomusicology Forum, Volume 13 Number 2 November 2004,

Johnny Clegg born June 7, 1953 in Rochdale (near Manchester), Lancashire, (UK) became a popular musician in South Africa. He formed the first inter-racial South Africa band, Juluka, with gardener and Zulu street musician Sipho Mchunu illegally. The formation of ‘JULUKA’, meaning “sweat” in Zulu, was in total contravention of the Cultural Segregation laws of the time, which emphasized the separation of language, race and culture (8). Their first ablum entitled was Universal Man was encrypted in the used of Zulu proverbs. Accoring by Simone Kruger,

“Universal Man” is a zulu song with zulu lyrics about the two fighting bulls; one of the bulls is large with strong horns while the other is small with tiny horns. But during the fighting, the little one wins because of its superior fighting knowledge. Thus the battle was encrypted through the use of a Zulu proverb.

Many musicians wrote their songs in such a way. They attempted to write the controversial lyrics stealthily by using symbols that related to South Africa’s political situation. Althought, the ablum Universal Man was banned for boardcasting, it however, became a word of mouth hit (9) and extremely popular within the black Africian communities.

At times, SABC attempted to contro the sensitive songs from getting down into the music market through the airplay by adding a label “Advoid” on the CD ablum, so it was not possible for the DJ to play it. They attempted to separate the controversial music from the
listenters in ways were possible. It is difficult to imagine how difficult this was for the

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(8) http://juluka.free.fr/biography.htm
(9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Clegg_(musician), (Access date on 2nd Jan, 2007)
(10)http://www.3rdearmusic.com/hyarchive/theroad.html, (Access date on 3rd Jan, 2007)

black Africian musician. Their territory had been invaded by others and their songs had been banned. However, the supressing force was about to be changed to become the opposing force. Thus, it would wake many musicians worldwide up to helping the South Africa musician.

In addition, some of the musicians continued to record their political songs even though they knew that such songs would be banned for broadcasting in South Africa. Roger Lucey and Mzwakhe Mbuli are good example.

Roger Lucey (1979 to 2001), was a promising rock musician and songwriter. His lyrics mainly related to opposing the National Party such as 'Lungile Tabalaza'. It is about a black activist who "fell" five floors to his death while in police custody (‘wellwhatever happened in that office only God and the cops will only know') and the album ‘The Road is Much Longer’ (11). Johnny Clegg was one of the performers on this album. According to the book of Shoot the Singer, Roger Lucey talked about how he was censored by the state government He said ‘I was obsessed with the worsening political situation which was instilling fear in the hearts and soul of all South Africans’. The government tapped his phone calls, intercepted the mail, threatened the night club owners and record executives where he was due to perform, conducted armed raids on his house in order to expel him out of his music career. After fourteen years struggling, he finally got into another line of work.

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(11) http://www.rock.co.za/files/roger_lucey_the_road.htm (Access date on 3rd Jan, 2007)

In order to tackle the problem of broadcasting, live performance became very important for the black South African musician. They were trying to reach the different audiences through the live performance directly. During concerts, they could express their feelings or telling their situation to the listeners by singing their song or by direct speech. Without live performances and concerts, they would otherwise lack of financial support and fade out naturally because of the organizations were asked to cut the funding with racist regime.

Police

Although black African musicians tried to hold concerts so as to pass on their message, the police often tried to interfere them, musician such as Mzwakhe Mbuli who was born in Sophiatown. Later, he moved to Soweto because the South African government threatened him out of the homeland. He put his poetry about anti-apartheid activist to music but as a result he got a hand grenade thrown to his home. Nevertheless, he continued to share his music. His first album, “Change Is Pain” was released but banned by the white Government’s Directorate of Publication. Finally, he was arrested.

Go to part II

Write by Cheng Po Chun (Eva) @2007 Part I