{"id":16523,"date":"2018-01-30T11:19:19","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T19:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=16523"},"modified":"2023-09-29T11:55:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-29T18:55:55","slug":"for-winnie-anti-apartheid-songs-of-protest","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/for-winnie-anti-apartheid-songs-of-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"For “Winnie”: Anti-Apartheid Songs of Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Miriam

Miriam Makeba and Dizzy Gillespie, 1991<\/p><\/div>\n

By Sarah Bardeen, guest contributor<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Modern South Africa was forged in apartheid. The struggle defined life for generations of South Africans, and music was crucial in that struggle. Black South Africans saw their guns confiscated, their homes bulldozed, their land stolen, but in the mouths of demonstrators, song became both a balm and a weapon. And the revolution used it.\u00a0 The new Independent Lens<\/em> documentary\u00a0Winnie<\/em><\/a> depicts that struggle and revolution from the perspective of Winnie Mandela’s story, and this new “Anti-Apartheid Songs of Protest” playlist<\/strong>\u00a0[on Spotify] and accompanying overview is meant as a musical companion to that story.<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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In the early years of apartheid, famous composers and poets like Vuyisile Mini churned out songs that were tested in the crucible of public protests, and adopted or abandoned immediately. The songs were often cheeky and direct: \u201cBeware, Verwoerd,\u201d sung here by Miriam Makeba<\/strong>, was taken up across the nation, with its confrontational chorus \u201cHere come the black people \/ Beware, Verwoerd!\u201d (Vuyisile Mini, tragically, would be hung for his compositions; he walked to the gallows singing his own songs.) <\/span><\/p>\n

Others hid their messages in code. Dorothy Masuka<\/strong> helped transform a children\u2019s song, \u201cKhauleza,\u201d into a freedom cry: \u201cHurry up, mama, hurry up!\u201d took a new meaning in the context of the anti-passbook protests. Likewise, South African authorities took Nancy Jacobs\u2019 upbeat swinger \u201cMeadowlands\u201d as a vindication of the government\u2019s clearance of the once-thriving, multicultural Sophiatown. But black South Africans, forced to resettle in desolate townships like Meadowlands, knew better\u2014they sang the song as they boarded the trucks out of town. Later, Miriam Makeba gave voice to the loss of that cultural center in \u201cSophiatown is Gone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hundreds of other songs were composed in the moment, by protesters and ANC organizers, and never committed to tape. These songs became community property, acting simultaneously as oral history and inspiration, and sometimes even as a means of planning future protests right under the nose of the oppressors.<\/span><\/p>\n

But by the late \u201850s, that early defiance was beginning to shift. In 1960, South African police gunned down dozens of peaceful protesters in Sharpeville, and artists and leaders were rounded up and imprisoned, or forced into exile. Inside South Africa, open defiance became a thing of the past. Instead, songs of mourning spilled out into the public sphere: songs like \u201cThina Sizwe,\u201d which lamented the loss of the land to the white man, and questioned when it would be won back. <\/span><\/p>\n

In \u201cNonqonqo (For Those We Love),\u201d Letta Mbulu<\/strong> voiced the fear and sadness of countless women whose men were in jail, naming the ANC leaders, Mandela and Sisulu among them, who were rotting in the New London jail. \u201cWhat have you done wrong, Africans?\u201d the singer keened rhetorically. <\/span><\/p>\n

As South Africa drove its brightest lights \u2013 Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim<\/strong>, Makeba and many others \u2013 into exile, they did not stay quiet. Masekela plowed his angst into songs like \u201cSharpeville\u201d and \u201cCoal Train (Stimela),\u201d and Makeba\u2019s soaring, authoritative voice became synonymous with the struggle. Letta Mbulu<\/strong> exhorted the protesters to \u201cCarry On\u201d with chillingly accurate lyrics: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey will tell their lying stories \/ Send their dogs to bite our bodies \/ They will lock us in their prisons \/ Carry on.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n