# Songs about Apartheid **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 22, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-apartheid/586363 "2011-06-22T00:54:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-apartheid/586363/41 "2011-06-26T05:25:02Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > It’s interesting. It reminds me a bit of a jazz Billy Bragg. Thanks for sharing it. Amazing voice. Thank you for listening. This thread’s taken a turn for the surreal. It’s 2011. Are there really people out there who believe that Apartheid was a good thing? I guess, but to find any you’d have to go to the deepest, darkest, nastiest, stinkiest, slimiest part of the web, the place where child pornographers and other lowest dregs of society hang out. Who would be willing to do that to find “balance”? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-apartheid/586363/42 "2011-06-26T14:15:58Z")
**BigNik** did have the germ of an interesting question - if the followers of Apartheid thought they were right, why did they not create art praising it, the way other oppressive regimes have like Nazis and Communists. And the answer I come up with is that they didn’t think they were right. All along, they _knew_ they were wrong, and they did it anyway, because of the immediate selfish benefits. By the same token, I don’t know of any songs written in the American South by Whites praising slavery as an institution. Not sure if minstrel songs are the same thing, I don’t think so. ETA: Afrikaners did create lots of art glorifying the Voortrekker past, which corroborates the point, I think. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-apartheid/586363/43 "2013-12-06T01:30:45Z")
Just bumping this as there might be people interested in it in light of Nelson Mandela’s passing. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-apartheid/586363/44 "2013-12-06T03:29:35Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > Just bumping this as there might be people interested in it in light of Nelson Mandela’s passing. Thanks. Take a look here, if you wish: [Nelson Mandela has died - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=709650) ---
**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-apartheid/586363/45 "2013-12-06T20:39:03Z")
“Weeping”, best known in the U.S. in Josh Groban’s version: > **[Weeping, The Anti-Apartheid Protest Song, Was Written By Dan Heymann](http://www.weeping.info/)** > > Who wrote that anti-apartheid freedom song, Weeping, that's been performed by so many artists, including Josh Groban? The answer is songwriter Dan Heymann. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-apartheid/586363/46 "2013-12-07T03:22:35Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > [“Johannesburg,”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SPj8PRf9Zw) by the late [Gil Scott-Heron.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Scott-Heron) He [performed this on one of the very first episodes of SNL](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdviHv_ezkQ) in Dec 1975! Richard Pryor hosted and I’m sure he probably got him the gig. I remember watching it as a kid and having absolutely no idea what the song was about. I didn’t first learn about apartheid until high school (1979)… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-about-apartheid/586363.md?page=2)