Culture is a wheel of understanding one another or telling a story that cannot otherwise be told as a collective.
Due to the parallel streams of oppression, suppression and depression, South African exiles and their European counterparts worked tirelessly to promote the cause of a long-term and sustainable freedom, both musically and politically.
South Africa and Europe share inglorious, burdening experiences in their history. The apartheid system in South Africa was inspired in essential points by the race laws of the National Socialists in Germany. And, as a result, the experiences of exile that the cultural avant-garde of both countries went through. Structurally similar is also the ignoring of these very experiences up to the rejection and denial of the achievements of those who had to spend substantial parts of their lives in exile.
Institutionalized racism on the one hand, denial and defense of exile on the other – how are these experiences processed artistically? And how do they flow into the oeuvre and consciousness of artistic work?
The early 1960s was a dark period in our country as the Apartheid regime tightened its racist programme. With the ANC Rivonia trail and jail sentences, with the PAC Sharpeville massacre, with the forced removals, the Africans felt the sharp oppression. Musicians were frustrated by curfew laws, segregation in performances and police harassment.
Against the backdrop of forced removals, the “dangerously hip” artists, poets and philosophers go into exile.
The South African jazz exiles found a welcoming home in Europe, and most particularly Germany. Sympathy for the exile movement was particular to the German consciousness, as Germany had an exile movement during the Nazi era. Very many important intellectuals and artists and people immigrated and left Germany because of the political convictions.
It’s that people who go into exile, very often create marvellous works in exile in those conditions under exile. And they teach us to listen. And this is why they’re so very helpful and fruitful for our society as well, for the society in which exiles live.
South Africa and Germany have a shared exile history. Like South Africa, very many important intellectuals and artists and people immigrated and left Germany because of the political conditions.
Our gathering is lead by Johnny iMbizo Dyani. iMbizo means gathering after all.
After his death, The Jazz Against Apartheid series in Frankfurt and platform was to remain central in spreading this message. Jazz Against Apartheid played a significant role in the dismantling of Apartheid as together with other South African cultural contributions including music, paintings, photography, drama and dance performance, writing; the South African culture as a whole united and profiled the liberation movement whilst connecting to the progressive cultural activism of the Germans during this period.Due to its relevance to both social and musical liberation, Dyani’s music became utilized and studied in a way by his contemporaries, peers and future generations, most notably through the Jazz Against Apartheid concerts in Frankfurt.
Veterans Gilbert Matthews, Pinise Saul, Ernest Mothle and Lucky Ranku and Louis Moholo shared in this valuable history with Dyani.
Famine : An African Prayer
by Vusi Mchunu
O Mdali weZulu noMhlaba
Mveliqangi!
bare sky is stabbed by arrows of the sun
dry riverbed meanders a path of thirst
dry corn moans the groans of empty bellies
we desert our village
we smash the empty gourd
snakes hiss, hiss
locusts crunch, crunch
bones of our children
O Mdali weZulu noMhlaba
Mvelinqangi!
siphe amandla
we are creative beings
O creator of the Heavens and Earth
Original One
Give us perseverance
This poem was spoken by Vusi Mchunu at the inaugural Jazz Against Apartheid event. Vusi recalls.
“It was the time of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union which dominated the standing of the Anti-Apartheid struggle. The Southern African liberation movements, including the ANC, were anchored in Russia and the east European countries. The Anti-Apartheid movement was quiet diversified in its focus, activities and philosophies. The exiles in West Berlin and West Germany developed and worked with committees from the Christian church, student groups, political formations, the trade unions, the social movements, progressive arts platforms and media platforms to highlight the issues happening in Apartheid South Africa. Germany played an important part in isolating, boycotting and contributing to bring the apartheid regime down. Undoubtedly, the arts in general were the mainstay and visible aspects of the political work that involved cultural and economic boycotts, pickets and demonstrations, conferences and meetings. As a cultural activist, this was my main arena to help bring down the Apartheid python.”
“Johnny’s passing away was apocalyptic similar to a volcanic eruption to the music and his followers at the world and at home. It was as though the dreaded impundulu bird of darkness hovered and lingered above a crimson sky. His healing music aimed to stimulate reflection, meditation and creative healing approaches to the complex of human existence. Diminutive as he had been in physical stature he remains a giant in music and interpretation. Significant players that were his contemporaries like Dollar Brand produced songs in his memory. Dedications by younger musicians inside SA, includes Sipho Gumede “A Song for Johnny Dyani.” Pianist Andile Yenana “Wish you Sunshine.” Also, the painter Mothlebane Moshiangwako “the efforts of those that came before us” and the amazing rap poet Lesego Rampolokeng produced amazing works to celebrate their prophet that had come like a comet and had vanished again leaving a star path of sprouting seeds and gems.”
His healing music aimed to stimulate reflection, meditation and creative healing approaches to the complex of human existence.Vusi mchunu
The role of Jazz Against Apartheid in the post-apartheid era took on a new and more musical influence. The musicians would gather every year or two for a series of performances and workshops. Trumpeter Harry Beckett, saxophonist John Tchicai, bassist Ernest Mothle and drummer Makaya Ntshoko, all performed with Johnny Dyani and carried his spirit forward during workshops and performances. They were joined from the outset by a few youngsters at the time including Thomas Dyani on percussion and trumpeter Claude Deppa.
claude deppaIt is music of meaning and impact. Those people, all of those people are heroes in many ways to the, to the culture, to the music, to the society, and to the diaspora and the exile. The more awareness we can bring.”
