In his paper Some Central African Concepts, Steve Biko said of the role of music in the lives of black Africans, “Any suffering we experienced was made much more real by song and rhythm… at work the binding rhythm makes everybody brush off the burden and hence Africans can continue for hours on end because of this added energy.”
In his paper Some Central African Concepts, Steve Biko said of the role of music in the lives of black Africans, “Any suffering we experienced was made much more real by song and rhythm… at work the binding rhythm makes everybody brush off the burden and hence Africans can continue for hours on end because of this added energy.”
During the apartheid era in South Africa, the role of music and performing musicians played a crucial role in lighting the social fire that lead to the undermining and eventual downfall of the apartheid regime.
In a separated country where whites ruled, the struggle songs and the rumblings of revolution were belted out from the black townships, uniting all to a common cause, fuelled by the power of song.
Struggle songs sung in the language of the oppressed allowed people to face their oppressors and tell them exactly what they thought of them through the instrument of song.
Various artists were at the vanguard of the struggle through their music. Musicians such as Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and Letta Mbulu were exiled for their anti-apartheid music, but continued to act as the voices of dissent while in exile, breaking into the mainstream entertainment media and rallying international support for their cause.
Managing sound engineer at the International Library of African Music (ILAM), Elijah Madiba, reflects on a past of protests and rallies in his youth and cites the power of music and song as the driving force behind his passion and will to change.
“I clearly remember an education protest I took part in that saw us walking more than 20kms in one day, whilst chanting and dancing all the way,” said Madiba. “And if it wasn’t for those songs we sung, we would not have been able to walk all that way, music puts you into a trance and allows you to do things that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. If you sing about something enough, it will happen.”
Internationally, concerts such as Artists United Against Apartheid and Human Rights Now! saw musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Sting, Nona Hendryx and Lakshminarayana Shankar band together and perform 20 concerts in 1988 to garner support from over one million people, worldwide, in the fight against apartheid.
Music and musicians also helped to get black South Africans into the white, mainstream media, grabbing the attention of young white South Africans, weaving together various races and voices into one resounding call for change.
Black musical movements such as Kwela, which had its roots in pennywhistle street jazz, broke into the whites-only jazz clubs and into community radio stations all over the country.
The Mayibuye Cultural Ensemble made use of poetry and struggle songs performed at mixed-race, underground, arts clubs, and musicians such as Eddy Grant and Lucky Dube wrote and performed music in a variety of languages local to South Africa, uniting all races in the country.
Grahamstown musician, Strato Copteros, who studied at the University of Witswaterstrand from 1986 to 199, took part in many student demonstrations himself and comments on the role of certain musicians in the lives of white students during the apartheid era.
“Young white South Africans were largely ignorant to the injustices at the time and for a lot of us, the first time we heard about any of it, or properly thought about any of it was when we would hear these struggle songs being sung on campus and those songs stuck with us” said Copteros, “Then there were musicians that we listened to, such as Sixto Rodriguez and Eddy Grant, who had subtle, but direct lyrics that spoke to us and made us question our identity, our race and our role as white South Africans.”
In the last 20 years, South Africa's music industry has expanded greatly and produced a large number of musical acts that have been a contributing force to democracy.
These artists not only produced big hits at the time, but they also broke through the race barriers. They got everyone dancing to their beat irrespective of whether they understood the lyrics or not. Artists such as Mandoza popularised kwaito music after 1994.
No kwaito song was more popular than Mandoza's own Nkalakatha which entered South African pop culture and saw black and white South Africans dance along to the tune.
Boom Shaka established itself by using several female vocalists, including Lebo Mathosa and Thembi Seete. Released in 1993, their hit single “It’s about time” would become the band's signature tune. Sung in English, the song also sparked controversy particularly for its provocative dance moves and the female singers' sexy clothing. The group became one of the few groups from South Africa to break into the international market, taking kwaito music overseas.
Just recently, singing sensation, Zahara, has also made an impact in the South African music industry. Her hit single, “Loliwe”, rejuvenated the music business at a time when local music producers and artists feared the demise of their music sales due to piracy.
Zahara's influence in the business has seen her sell more than 200 000 copies of her début album, an incredible achievement considering that it takes an artist 25 000 copies to reach platinum status in South Africa. Zahara also sang for the late Nelson Mandela at his home.
There are many more artists in South Africa who have extended their influence from the apartheid days into the post-1994 era.
Revered gospel singer, Rebecca Malope, still makes music today. In the golden age of South African music Malope would compete with international artists such as Celine Dion, and would outsell them in the South African market. Her 1995 album “Shwele baba” is South Africa’s fastest-selling album, selling more than a million copies in three weeks, after its release.
Throughout history, music has always been an instrument to mobilise and inspire: It has the power to make us sing, to make us dance and to make us stand up and use it to make a call for freedom. South African musicians have proved that it’s a profoundly powerful way to make a political statement.
