18.09.2009
18.09.2009
Wits’ music man: Johnny Clegg (PDF Juli 2008 Original)
Internationally renowned musician and Wits alumnus and former staff member, Johnny Clegg will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Wits University tomorrow evening. An overview of his life follows including his contribution to promoting cultural development in South Africa, his disregard for laws banning his music under apartheid and the international status he has acquired as a musician. Wits University will confer on Johnny Clegg its highest honour - the degree of Doctor of Music honoris causa at 6pm on Wednesday, 13 June 2007 in the Wits Great Hall.
The son of an actress and a journalist, Jonathan Clegg was born near Manchester, England, in 1953 and grew up in Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa. As a teenager in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, he encountered the demi-monde of the city’s Zulu migrant workers’ music and dance. Under the tutelage of Charlie Mzila, a flat cleaner by day and a musician by night, Clegg mastered both the Zulu language and the maskandi guitar and isishameni dance styles of the migrants while still in his mid-teens. Through these he also gained a profound understanding of Zulu culture, as his songs attest.
Clegg’s involvement with black musicians often led to arrests for trespassing on government property and for contravening the Group Areas Act. Undeterred, he immersed himself in the world of Zulu migrant labourers and was soon entering hostel dance competitions at the head of his own team.
In the early 1970s Clegg and Sipho Mchunu, a migrant worker and guitarist from KwaZulu Natal, formed an acoustic Zulu musical duo called Juluka (meaning sweat). In the meantime, he studied Social Anthropology at Wits University, where he was influenced by, amongst others, Professor David Webster and earned his BA (Hons). He then joined the staff of the department and pursued an academic career for four years, lecturing at Wits University and the University of Natal and writing several seminal scholarly papers on Zulu music and dance.
In 1976 Clegg and Mchunu enlarged their inter-racial band, secured a major recording deal and made their first hit song entitled Woza Friday. King Sobhuza II of Swaziland named Clegg an official ‘royal minstrel’. A period of development followed, during which Clegg worked on bringing together English lyrics and Western melodies and Zulu musical structures. In this he was spectacularly successful and set the standard for the Afro-Anglo ‘crossover’ popular musical ensembles of the 1980s.
The formation of Juluka contravened the apartheid laws, which emphasised the separation of language, race and culture. The group’s recorded music was censored and banned and the only way to access audiences was by touring. In late 1979 Juluka’s first album, Universal Men, was released. The collection wove together seamlessly English and Zulu folk balladry and dance, providing an affecting melodic and rhythmic platform for lyrics of outstanding literary quality. In 1982 and 1983 Juluka toured the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. The group split in 1985 and in 1986 Clegg formed another band, Savuka (we have risen), mixing African music with Celtic folk and international rock sounds. Savuka toured Europe extensively in 1986 and 1987 and by the end of 1987 was the leading world music group touring Francophone countries.
By the end of 1989 Savuka had sold over 1-million copies of its debut album and its second album was reaching 700,000 units. In 1990 the group received the Victoires award from the French recording industry as the best-selling international artists over two years. In that year it also received the world music award as the biggest-selling music group internationally. Clegg, now known throughout Western Europe as Le Zoulou Blanc, was declared a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Government in 1991. In 1993 Savuka's last trademark album was nominated for a Grammy Award for the best world music album.
Clegg’s music presents an intricate and holistic spectrum covering culture, its practice and its expression through song and dance. He is, perhaps, the only white artist to have mastered Zulu maskandi guitar and its lyrical and choreographic styles, together with a deep understanding of their cultural origins.
Johnny Clegg's music was both implicitly and explicitly political. The success of his bands (which openly celebrated African culture) was a thorn in the flesh of the National Party government and Clegg's music was officially banned from the airwaves, ostensibly for ‘insulting the Zulu people by pretending to play their music’. As a songwriter he produced some explicitly political songs. For example, the album Work For All included South African trade union slogans. Even more explicit was the Savuka album Third World Child, in 1987, with songs like ‘Asimbonanga’, which called for the release of Nelson Mandela and featured the names of three martyrs of the South African liberation struggle – Steve Biko, Victoria Mxenge and Neil Aggett. ‘Asimbonanga’ became something of an anthem for the Mass Democratic Movement's umbrella organisation, the United Democratic Front. So great was Clegg's reputation that there was no boycott of his international shows. When Savuka was at first refused permission to play at Mandela's 70th birthday concert at London's Wembley Stadium in 1988, Winnie Mandela called from South Africa to intercede and the ensemble was allowed to perform.
Organisationally, under Clegg's chairmanship during the later 1980s, the South African Musicians Association (SAMA) played a crucial role as the political spokesman for and representative of the Mass Democratic Movement for performers, channelling their energies in progressive political directions and making sure the cultural boycott was responsibly upheld. SAMA gave an enormous boost to both the political and professional representation of musicians and transformed into the Musicians Union of South Africa (MUSA) still plays an important role as arbitrator in the professional community of musicians, especially in Johannesburg, the centre of the industry.
Clegg also developed an innovative aspect of his performances that creatively employed the cultural and ethnographical knowledge and communicative skills he had acquired and honed in at Wits’ Department of Social Anthropology and in the hostels. He preceded each song with snippets of Zulu culture, information, commentary, humour and personal anecdotes relevant and unique to that song. An engaged social anthropologist, he not only mastered the theories but delved into the culture and disseminated it. In the hands of a less skilled cultural raconteur these mini-lectures might have evoked impatience from audiences but Clegg's obvious passion, sense of timing and irresistible charm held them spellbound. The spell worked even more powerfully with exile and foreign audiences in North America and Europe. Clegg's poetic lyrics in both English and Zulu evoked powerfully not only the sufferings of rural Zulu migrants but also their proud cultural memory.
Briefly reunited with Mchunu in the mid-1990s Clegg re-formed Juluka and toured throughout the world as the opening act for King Sunny Ade, as well as in his own headline performances. Today he continues to tour abroad regularly and entertains packed houses in South Africa. He has also become a major force in the independent music production industry, finding and sponsoring new talent in South Africa. He has, on many occasions, assisted his old department at Wits, giving guest seminars and performing solo at student benefit events.
Johnny Clegg's life and productions give meaning to the multiculturalism and social integration South Africans yearn for. It is therefore fitting that his alma mater will confer on him its highest honour, the degree of Doctor of Music honoris causa on Wednesday, 13 June 2007 in the Wits Great Hall.
Media enquiries: Shirona Patel on (011) 717-1019 or 0846192646 or shirona.patel@wits.ac.za
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Buerk’s programme includes contributions from South African musicians such as Yvonne Chaka Chaka and the wonderful Johnny Clegg, who formed Juluka, the first successful multiracial band in apartheid South Africa. Clegg is a pretty amazing man himself, a white Zulu with a heart as big as Africa. I once saw him strap-hanging on a bus on his way to his day job as a lecturer at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, immaculately dressed in three-piece pinstripe suit, bare feet and fur ankle bracelets. But that’s another story.
Sat 19 September @ 7pm: ICC Durban.
http://www.kizo.co.za/invites-2009/a-known-heritage-exhibition/Heritage-Awards-09.doc
+ The-Heritage-Awards.pdf
The Heritage Awards, a high-profile annual event which sees six phenomenal South
Africans honoured for their contribution towards the preservation and promotion
of South African heritage and culture - takes place on Saturday 19 September at
7pm at the ICC Durban at a glittering function.
This significant elegant awards evening is believed to be the only major annual
award to honour leaders in the field of Heritage specifically, and their
contribution to the cultural traditions and legacy of this country.
The awardees were carefully selected after contribution from The Premier’s
Office; BASA; NAC; Independent Newspapers and Kizo.
This year the awards will be going to: Alfred Nokwe (late) for theatre; Johnny
Clegg - music and social cohesion; Noria Mabasa – an accomplished sculptor and
wood carver; Bheki Mseleku (late) for music; Nanda Soobben – Durban based
cartoonist, animator and arts educator and Jay Pather for dance .
The Awards will be a glittering affair as part of the city’s Celebrate Durban
heritage season and will be held for the first time at the ICC. The guest
speaker at the awards will be Advocate Mancotywa (National Heritage Council
CEO). MC is living treasure Gcina Mhlophe. Entertainment is co-ordinated by
Mbongemi Ngema and Committed Artists.
The Gateway Theatre of Shopping and Kizo Art Gallery’s annual Heritage Art
Festival is once again an ambitious multi-layered, forward-thinking festival of
20 art themed events which will be held throughout Heritage Month at the Kizo
Art Gallery and the Gateway Theatre of Shopping. The Heritage Awards is one of
the major events of the annual Heritage Arts Festival line up.
Kizo wishes to acknowledge its valuable partners for The Heritage Awards
function: Provincial Government; Independent Newspapers; ICC; BASA; NAC;
Celebrate Durban.
For more information contact Nathi on 031 5664322 or nathig@kizo.co.za
Nathi Gumede - Head Curator - Kizo Art Consultants
Tel: (031) 566 4322/4
Fax: (031) 566 2494
Email: nathig@kizo.co.za
Website: www.kizo.co.za
In 2007, The Heritage Art Festival launched The Heritage Awards in an endeavour to honour and preserve our nation’s diverse cultural heritage. Six individuals are chosen and awarded for their contribution to the preservation and promotion of South African heritage during an awards ceremony each year as part of the festival. These awards are intended to acknowledge the recipients’ artistic excellence and support their continuing contribution to our nation’s traditional cultural heritage.
A committee made up of senior representatives of The Office of The Premier, The National Arts Council, Business Arts South Africa, The Independent Newspapers and Kizo Art Consultants select the awardees.
The recipients for the 2009 award are:
Johnny Clegg, who is being honoured at next week's Heritage Awards, occupies a special place in the musical history of South Africa, writes Peter Machen http://www.kizo.co.za/invites-2009/the-heritage-awards/Johnny-Clegg-for-Daily-News.rtf
In the late '80s, for any middle class kid who was even vaguely opposed to apartheid, it was very difficult to hear any dissenting voices. While history now reveals that there was a thriving alternate media, that media was inaccessible to those in the country's white middle-class heartlands. Central to the twisted social experiment of apartheid was the overwhelming control of the media and the airwaves, and as a result, many people never got to hear the country's incredible wealth of protest music that ranged from Hugh Masekela to Brenda Fassie to the Kalahari Surfers. They did however get to hear Juluka, the non-racial multicultural group formed by Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu. Despite censorship and the banning of Juluka on SABC, the band nonetheless managed to gather a large following both locally and internationally. That success must have made the apartheid government very nervous. The very existence of Juluka was anathema to the government's racist policy of separate development; a non-racial band explicitly exposed the lie that was apartheid and the fact that Juluka produced such jubilant and buoyant music can't have made the government any happier. That they managed to spread their songs of freedom and common humanity around the world, must have driven all those balding white heads to distraction.
Although he was born in England, Johnny Clegg remains one of South Africa's foremost musical talents and cultural ambassadors. An anthropologist by training, Clegg talented as a musician and songwriter and the resultant musical expression – both with Juluka and his subsequent band Savuka and also as a solo artist – has resulted in a rich legacy, both in its social impact and in the beauty of his music. A fervent anti-apartheid campaigner, Clegg – partially by virtue of his race – was one of the few leftwing social commentators who managed to secure space within the mainstream media of apartheid (despite much censorship) and was thus capable of fighting the system from within. In doing so, he helped to ease the transition towards a non-racial South Africa.
Clegg's fusion of
Western melodies and English lyrics with indigenous musical forms places him as
a forerunner to the world music explosion spearheaded by Peter Gabriel. Growing
up in the UK, Israel, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa no doubt helped him in
his quest to make music with global appeal. The resulting universal resonance of
his music, led by an exquisite ear for song-writing, has lead to commercial
success and critical acclaim around the world, both for Clegg and for his
bands.
As a teenager, Clegg was deeply attracted to Zulu street music – he frequently
took part in traditional Zulu dance competitions and learned to master the
Maskanda guitar. This led him to study anthropology at Wits, where he
subsequently taught, before embarking on his musical career and forming Juluka,
South Africa's first first racially mixed band, with Mchunu. Although their
first album Universal Men received no radioplay from the dominant
government radio stations, it nonetheless became a massive hit, and Juluka went
on to become a thorn in the side of the apartheid system, touring Europe and
garnering two platinum and five gold albums. But when Mchunu was asked by his
father to return home to herd the family goats, Juluka disbanded.
Clegg went on to form his second band, Savuka, which continued his fusion of African and European musical structures, although this time the music had a slightly poppier feel. The Savuka albums Third World Child and Shadow Man achieved enormous commercial and critical success around the world, while their 1993 album Heat, Dust and Dreams was nominated for best world music album at the Grammy Awards. Savuka were disbanded in 1994 and in 1996 Juluka was temporarily reformed. Although, he occasionally still plays with the band that changed his life, Clegg has largely moved on to a successful solo career, releasing three successful solo albums including a live album and 2006's One Life. He is currently travelling between Johannesburg and Europe, recording tracks for his new album, which will be available early next year, another addition to the musical legacy that Clegg has been building his entire life. It is a legacy that has helped, in its way, to bring us all closer together.
The Heritage Awards is a high-profile annual event which sees six phenomenal South Africans honoured for their contribution towards the preservation and promotion of South African heritage and culture. The other five awardees are Nanda Soobben, Bheki Mseleku, Noria Mabasa, Jay Pather and Alfred Nokwe. The awards ceremony takes place on Saturday 19 September at 7pm at the ICC Durban at a glittering function. To book contact Sheeka at sheeka@kizo.co.za or on 031 566 4324.