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| I first heard a tape of Johnny Clegg when I was 13 years old. It was one of those experiences where I instantly loved the music. At the time I don't think I realized the extent of the anti-apartheid message his songs took on. In this way I kind of grew into the lirics as I grew older. I still like his music today, even though it is an older style by todays standards. (As opposed to my other friends of that age who liked ACDC and who probably have little taste for them now.) His music also introduced me to African rhythms for the first time... In a way this is a thank you page for the way he shaped my musical tastes and moral attitudes. |
| History
JOHNNY CLEGG, born in Rochdale, England in 1953 was raised in his mother’s native land of Zimbabwe before immigrating to South Africa at the age of nine. At the age of 14, Johnny began to learn to play the guitar. Through his interest he met CHARLIE MZILA, a Zulu flat cleaner who played street music near Clegg’s home. For two years Johnny learned the fundamentals of Zulu music and traditional Zulu INHLANGWINI dancing with Charlie. He was 13 years old when he saw the dancers for the first time. Equipped with his guitar, Johnny accompanied Mzila to all the migrant labour haunts – from hostels to rooftop shebeens. However, Johnny’s involvement with black musicians often led to him being arrested for trespassing on government property and for contravening the Group Areas Act, (an apartheid law forcing different races to keep to their own residential and recreational areas). In this difficult and complex political landscape, Johnny managed to navigate a path, which enabled him to enter the hidden world of the Zulu migrant labourers. These men lived in a number of huge barrack-like hostels around Johannesburg, serving Johannesburg’s insatiable appetite for cheap black labour. During this period he developed a reputation as a competent Zulu guitarist in the MASIKANDE (from the Afrikaans "Musikant") tradition. This reputation reached the ears of SIPHO MCHUNU, a migrant Zulu worker who had come up to Johannesburg in 1969 looking for work. Intrigued he challenged Johnny to a guitar competition, sparking off a friendship and musical partnership destined to alter the face of South |
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| African music. Sipho was born in Kranskop, Natal, in 1951. Although
he had no musical training as a young boy, he had made himself a variety
of musical instruments; his favourite being a three stringed guitar fashioned
out of a paraffin tin. Soon he became extremely adept and well versed in
Zulu street guitar music. He later also formed a traditional Zulu dance
team and found a vast outlet for his creative energies. Sipho investigated
this young white boy who danced and also played Zulu street music and looked
him up at his apartment one day. A strong friendship developed out of this
meeting as for the first time Johnny was playing with a street musician
his own age. Johnny was sixteen and Sipho eighteen.
Together they worked, often subjected to racial abuse, threats of violence and police harassment. As places where they could perform were limited by the apartheid laws, they had to stick to the street and private venues such as church and university halls. When Johnny finished his schooling he went to University, graduating with a BA (Hons) in Social Anthropology and pursued an academic career for four years lecturing at the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Natal. In 1976 Johnny and Sipho secured a major recording deal and had their first hit sing entitled, "Woza Friday". A period of development followed, during which Johnny worked on the concept of bringing together English lyrics and Western melodies with Zulu musical structures. The formation of JULUKA, meaning "sweat" in Zulu, was in total contravention of the Cultural Segregation laws of the time, which emphasized the separation of language, race and culture. (Juluka was the name of Sipho’s favourite bull, because like all migrants, Sipho practiced some cattle farming in the rural areas). Their music was subjected to censorship and banning and their only way to access an audience was through live touring. In late 1979 their first album "Universal Men" was released. Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu launched their second album "African Litany" in early 1981. Although their work had been largely ignored by the South African Broadcasting Corporation due to Juluka’s mixing of languages and African and Western music forms, "African Litany" became a major breakthrough Album for the band through word of mouth and live performances. "Ubuhle Bemvelo" was their immediate follow-up Album and was entirely in the Zulu language, but mixing Western and African styles of music. In 1982 and ’83, Juluka toured the USA, Canada, the UK, Germany and Scandinavia. In 1983 they released "Work for All" and in late 1984 they released "Musa Ukungilandela". Juluka split in 1985 – Sipho went back to his farm in Zululand where he was born. Johnny went on to form another crossover band "SAVUKA", mixing African music with celtic folk music and international tock sounds. In 1989, Sipho asked Johnny to assist him in recording a solo Album. Johnny funded and produced Sipho’s solo Album and Sipho toured South Africa and France extensively. Sipho recorded a second Album, after which he discontinued his solo career. SAVUKA terminated in 1993 and Johnny and Sipho began looking at reforming JULUKA. This came to fruition in 1996 when they went into the studio and they commenced recording "YA VUKA INKUNZI". "Ya Vuka Inkunzi" is a broad crossover Album, reflecting a broad variety of traditional and modern African styles current in South Africa today. Some of the songs are energetic combinations of traditional Zulu guitar styles put to hip-hop, eurodance and contemporary rock rhythms. Traditional Zulu chants feature prominently on this Album and there is a blending of Zulu and English lyrics which Juluka is famous for. There are also at least four traditional tracks, which give the listener a good idea of the more truly indigenous roots of the Juluka project (see "Tholakele", "Muzi Wami", Makhelwane" and "Thandazani"). |
