Alpha Blondy - Apartheid is Nazism
This seems to be a fairly one-sided list.
Is there any music offering balance, or is this just another example of the naive, do-gooder leftism of the entertainment industry? Except, of course, for anything recorded after 1994, which are just bandwagon-jumpers.
I hope this is a woosh, I really do.
Paul Simon’s “Peace Like a River”
Link to lyrics:
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Peace-Like-a-River-lyrics-Paul-Simon/9567278E962AB2584825698A000AE068
Actually now that I think about, I take it back…“Peace Like a River” could be applied numerous social movements/civil disobedience, and not just apartheid.
Please take the time to listen to this:
“Suburban Hum” by South African Jennifer Ferguson.
It was recorded by Jennifer for a compilation album called Forces Favorites, which consisted of several South African acts singing songs protesting apartheid and enforced conscription into the South African Defense Force which was responsible for enforcing apartheid laws.
It was released by Rounder Records in America (#4023) on LP. I’ve never seen it on CD. “Suburban Hum” is 7 minutes and 14 seconds full of powerful images; vulnerability, confusion, sarcasm, wit, defiance and sadness.* Close your eyes, listen to the lyrics carefully, and it’s like a mini-movie in your head about living as a privileged white girl growing up among apartheid and coming into awareness. It’s quite amazing, and even all these years later, the song still packs a wallop. I don’t even get most of the references, though someone living in SA at the time would. Lyrics like “see the little black girl running from a bullet that her daddy’s going to meet” cause me to break out in a cold sweat.
Btw, she didn’t just talk the talk as a songwriter/musician. As per that link above, she got into politics and “served 3 years as a member in the National Parliament, under then President Mandela.”
(it’s also very cool that Jennifer herself commented on the song)
*yeah I cut and pasted some from the description, but I’m plagiarizing myself.
Bunny Wailer had Botha The Mosquito and possibly others on this album especially but I don’t recall the lyrics well enough to say for sure.
Yeah, and while we’re at it, as to the Third Reich, is there any music offering balance, or is this just another example of the naive, do-gooder anti-fascism of the entertainment industry? Except, of course, for anything recorded after 1945, which are just bandwagon-jumpers.
Some local songs:
Johnny Clegg’s Asimbonanga - lyrics
Bright Blue : Weeping
Some international ones:
PIL - Rise
Madness - (Waiting For) The Ghost Train
Maybe you can address BigNik’s concern, were there any pro-apartheid songs?
None that I’m aware of. AFAIK, most Afrikaans patriotic songs were Anglo-Boer War songs. Can’t think of a single one praising Apartheid.
Completely off topic, but apparently here in Ireland, Catholics (nationalists) supported Kruger (spelling?) in the Boer Wars. England’s enemy was Ireland’s ally I suppose.
Well, for all that they weren’t nice in other ways, the Boers were actually in more in the right in that one. The English were the aggressors.
Plenty, actually. Recorded all around the world, if less although they tended to dry up outside middle Europe after about '38.
There was also a lot of good film made about the Third Reich from both sides.
Major political movements that inflame passions tend to bring art along on both sides. Yet I’ve only ever seen anti-apartheid art, and by the sounds of it pretty much everyone else on the boards is the same.
So I appreciate your snark, even if it mostly just shows that you can’t see the subtext of the question (hey, you Godwinised the thread, you can’t complain now), but MrDibble’s response ties up with my experience, so the next question is why was the artwork of this particular movement so retrospective?
Oh God, I love that song (and Spitting Image)
Two more from the punk world:
Oi Polloi “Apartheid Stinx”
…and a whole compilation record dedicated to the ANC:
http://www.discogs.com/Various-Viva-Umkhonto/release/472315
If anyone wants to hear any “pro-Apartheid” songs, just search for “skinhead apartheid” or “white power apartheid” on YouTube or Google. I’m sure there’s something out there. (I don’t particularly want to go looking for it myself.)
You were serious in the wording of your question?
Just wondering if you’d listened to this yet An Gadaí (or anyone). It really, really is an amazing song. And it’s by a South African who LIVED IT (as a white girl, but still, one with an awakening conscience), one of only 4 mentioned in this thread (along with Hugh Masekela, Johnny Clegg & Bright Blue).
I can’t be alone in being blown away by the song.
I’d be willing to bet there are some white supremacist/white nationalist/white separationist bands who’ve done songs praising an institutionalized system of oppression.
I wouldn’t know any of those songs, but the members of Stormfront might. They’d be the worldly, non-naive conservatives you’re looking for.
I, of course, being someone who feels oppression is wrong, don’t believe that there’s any sort of “balance” to be found in songs regarding this era of South African history.
It’s interesting. It reminds me a bit of a jazz Billy Bragg. Thanks for sharing it. Amazing voice.