21.11.2019
26 July 2019 Foundation News
Rare clip surfaces after 39 years
At the time a 20 year-old postgrad Journalism & Media Studies student at Rhodes,
Founding Executive Director Shaun Johnson talked to Johnny Clegg and Sipho
Mchunu in a video interview for the documentary Rhythm & Dues: Glimpses of South
African Roots and Rock. The interview took place in Johnny’s garden, in
Johannesburg, 1980, and given his recent passing, it’s an apt moment to revisit
his early thinking about Juluka, before they were globally renowned.
As Johnny explains, Juluka represents an attempt at reconciling two cultures
that were legally forced to remain separate. It was a radical act of reaching
across cultural and linguistic divides, and attempting to make a new sound. This
open-hearted and courageous approach speaks closely to the principles espoused
by the MRF’s Founding Patron, Nelson Mandela, with whom Clegg became associated
following the release of Asimbonanga in 1987.
The MRF is pleased to be able to share the footage with its community of all
generations. Shaun said: “Like millions of people around the world, I am still
mourning Johnny, who I was so fortunate to get to know. As well as being a great
artist, to me and to many of my generation, he was a rare role model –
especially for young white people.”
More about Rhythm and Dues
The full 44-minute documentary film was produced and directed by Shaun and
fellow Honours student Chuck Scott, with Nigel Wrench as Assistant Director. It
takes a look inside the tumultuous world of the underground music scene of the
eighties, when mixed bands were illegal, and music was a form of resistance to
the apartheid state.
The film remains largely unseen and unknown; in apartheid South Africa in the
1980s there was no chance of what was then considered such a radical polemic
being broadcast. Rather, it was shown relatively clandestinely in clubs and pubs
and on university campuses, and developed a following among the broad
anti-apartheid Left of the time. Those involved in its creation were harassed by
the security police and their film equipment mysteriously stolen in
Johannesburg, but the movie got made. It was not formally banned and so
continued to reach audiences in modest numbers.
The film was not made on a modest budget. It was made on no budget at all. This,
along with its vintage, is the excuse of the creators for its DIY aesthetic.
Rhythm & Dues also features the music of and interviews with (in alphabetical
order):
Andrew Tracey
Asylum Kids
Benjy Mudie
Dave Monks
Harari
Ivan Kadey
James Phillips
Kelly Setlange
Leatherette
National Wake
Patric van Blerk
Patrick Lee
Peach
Peter Gallo
Pieter Human
Ray Nkwe
Roger Lucey
Sipho Hotstix Mabuse
Steve Kekana
The Radio Rats
Willie Thabethe
South Cape Children's Choir sing a tribute to Johnny Clegg at a concert in Wilderness, Garden Route, South Africa.
Meanwhile, Sipho Mchunu has paid tribute to his long-time friend, and musical partner. Mchunu first performed with Clegg under the name 'Johnny and Sipho'. They founded the band 'Juluka' in 1979, in the darkest days of apartheid
