Related Research Articles
Soweto is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships. Formerly a separate municipality, it is now incorporated in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, and one of the suburbs of Johannesburg.
Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was a South African singer, songwriter, dancer and activist. Affectionately called MaBrrr by her fans, she is also known as the "Queen of African Pop", the "Madonna of The Townships" or simply as The Black Madonna. Her bold stage antics earned a reputation for "outrageousness"; ironically, her Xhosa name, Nokuzola, means "quiet", "calm", or "peace".
Lucky Philip Dube was a South African reggae musician and Rastafarian. His record sales across the world earned him the Best Selling African Musician prize at the 1996 World Music Awards. In his lyrics, Dube discussed issues affecting South Africans and Africans in general to a global audience. He recorded 22 albums in a 25-year period and was Africa's best-selling reggae artist of all time. Dube was murdered in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville on the evening of 18 October 2007.
The poetry of South Africa covers a broad range of themes, forms and styles. This article discusses the context that contemporary poets have come from and identifies the major poets of South Africa, their works and influence.
46664 was a series of AIDS benefit concerts played in honour of Nelson Mandela by South African and foreign musicians between 2003 and 2008.
African popular music, like African traditional music, is vast and varied. Most contemporary genres of African popular music build on cross-pollination with Western popular music. Many genres of popular music like blues, jazz, salsa, zouk, and rumba derive to varying degrees on musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by enslaved Africans. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently been adapted by newer genres like rock, and rhythm and blues. Likewise, African popular music has adopted elements, particularly the musical instruments and recording studio techniques of the Western music industry. The term does not refer to a specific style or sound but is used as a general term for African popular music.
Benedict Wallet Vilakazi was a South African novelist, linguist, a descendant of the Zulu royal family, and a radically innovative poet who created a combination of traditional and Romantic poetry in the Zulu language. Vilakazi was also a professor at the University of Witwatersrand, where he became the first Black South African to teach University classes to White South Africans. In 1946, Vilakazi also became the first Black South African to receive a PhD.
Raymond Chikapa Enock Phiri was a South African jazz, fusion and mbaqanga musician born in Mpumalanga to Thabethe Phiri, a Malawian immigrant worker, and South African guitarist nicknamed "Just Now" Phiri. He was a founding member of the Cannibals in the 1970s. When the Cannibals disbanded Ray founded Stimela, with whom he conceived gold and platinum-selling albums like Fire, Passion and Ecstacy (1984), Look, Listen and Decide (1986). He collaborated with Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Simon's Graceland (1986) album.
The Mahotella Queens is a South African female band formed in 1964 by music producer Rupert Bopape, consisting of Hilda Tloubatla, Nobesuthu Mbadu, and Amanda Nkosi. The group is noted for their distinct vocal harmony sound, guitar-led mbaqanga music, and fast stage dancing.
Shifty Records was a South African anti-apartheid record label founded by Lloyd Ross and Ivan Kadey in 1982/3, which existed for around ten years.
Lesego Rampolokeng is a South African writer, playwright and performance poet.
Jabu Khanyile was a South African musician and lead vocalist from the band Bayete.
Sello "Chicco" Twala is a South African singer and record producer. He has produced many hit singles for well-known artists in the country, including Nkosana Kodi and Brenda Fassie. In the 1970s, he played in soul bands including Umoja and Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse's Harari, as well as forming his own band, Image.
Nelson Mandela is the debut extended play by South African singer Zahara. It pays tribute to Nelson Mandela and was released on July 15, 2013, at a time when Mandela was critically ill at the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria. The EP's lead single, eponymously titled "Nelson Mandela", peaked at number 1 on South Africa's official music chart. Upon its release, the EP was made available for purchase on iTunes.
Banning Eyre is a guitarist, writer, photographer, and producer specializing in the music of Africa. He has produced the Peabody Award-winning radio show Afropop Worldwide and is author of several books on African music including AFROPOP! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music, In Griot Time, An American Guitarist in Mali, Lion Songs: Thomas Mapfumo and the Music That Made Zimbabwe, the instructional guide Guitar Atlas: Africa, and a report on censorship in Zimbabwe for the Danish human rights organization Freemuse entitled Playing With Fire, Fear and Self-Censorship in Zimbabwean Music.
The apartheid regime in South Africa began in 1948 and lasted until 1994. It involved a system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and placed all political power in the hands of a white minority. Opposition to apartheid manifested in a variety of ways, including boycotts, non-violent protests, and armed resistance. Music played a large role in the movement against apartheid within South Africa, as well as in international opposition to apartheid. The impacts of songs opposing apartheid included raising awareness, generating support for the movement against apartheid, building unity within this movement, and "presenting an alternative vision of culture in a future democratic South Africa."
"Asimbonanga", also known as "Asimbonanga (Mandela)", is an anti-apartheid song by the South African racially integrated band Savuka. It was first released as a 12" single in 1986, and then included in their 1987 album Third World Child. It alluded to Nelson Mandela, imprisoned on Robben Island at the time of song's release, and other anti-apartheid activists. "Asimbonanga" is a Zulu phrase that may be translated as "We have not seen him". It was well received, becoming popular within the movement against apartheid, and was covered by several artists including Joan Baez and the Soweto Gospel Choir.
Songololo: Voices of Change is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Marianne Kaplan and released in 1990. An examination of South Africa in the earliest days of the transition from apartheid to democracy, the film explores the power of music and art as tools of activism and social change, focusing primarily on writer Gcina Mhlophe and musician Mzwakhe Mbuli.
Resistance Is Defence is an album by the South African musician Mzwakhe Mbuli. It was released in 1992. Some of its songs were banned from South African radio.
References
- Afropop! An Illustrated Guide to Contemporary African Music by Sean Barlow & Banning Eyre. (Book Sales August 1995) ISBN 0-7858-0443-9, ISBN 978-0-7858-0443-7
