Since the early 1960s South African jazz musicians in exile together with their international counterparts have used the freedom of South African jazz to not only strongly influence European jazz music but also fight the struggle against apartheid. Their sacrifices made a significant contribution to the freedom and opportunities we experience as a nation today.
One of the fore-most proponents was bass player, composer and ANC member in exile Johnny Mbizo Dyani. Born in Duncan Village, East London Mr Dyani went into exile at the age of 17 with the famous Blue Notes.
Mr Dyani’s contribution was remarkable from three perspectives: his prolific and collaborative career illustrates the unity in diversity that is achieved through music; his compositions and albums bring awareness to struggle icons such as Steve Biko, Lillian Ngoyi, Nelson and Winnie Mandela; and he established the movement abroad called Jazz Against Apartheid (JAA).
JAA was started In 1986 in Berlin together by Mr Jürgen Leinhos, a now 82-year old German, and his Frankfurt-based initiative “Kultur im Ghetto” (Culture in the Ghetto). Although Mr Dyani tragically passed away the same year, Mr Leinhos continued the event annually. In 2021 President Cyril Ramaphosa bestowed the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo in silver on him for his commitment and determination against apartheid and for standing by the oppressed and fighting for their cause as an anti-apartheid activist.
Although Dyani died shortly after the inaugural event in 1986, Leinhos has preserved this treasure for South Africans with roughly 100 Concerts, Poetry recitals, Workshops, Exhibitions and Symposia in Germany, Switzerland and the USA presenting the music of Johnny Mbizo Dyani.
Now that Leinhos’s life’s work has been recognised in South Africa with the prestigious OR Tambo presidential award (2021), the timing is perfect for the politically and culturally achievements of exiled South African jazz musicians together with the supportive creative and collaborative German jazz musicians to return to South Africa to share, inspire and create a fresh collaborative musical experience.
Jazz Against Apartheid as a movement for change
JAA is first of all a series of concerts organized by both musicians and
political/cultural activists. It is searching for allies and supporters and
remains a free association of people dedicated to the cause of freedom and individual and social solidarity and responsibility.
Overcoming apartheid was the first and foremost aim. However as Jürgen described, “Overcoming apartheid does not stop once apartheid – being a name and definition of a political system – stops. Since isolating political voices and groups not only from the political process, but from education, health care, etc. have not stopped, JAA still has a legitimate reason to exist.”
What has changed are the musicians – because of the deaths of all
but one of the original members of Johnny Dyani´s band in 1986. What remains the same is the music and its message: of liberation,
of the possibility of individual and collective freedom, of the necessity
of political struggle while retaining one´s humanity.
The relevance of the “Beyond Exile” concert series today is bringing into popular awareness what was politically and culturally achieved by exile artists such as Dyani, Pukwana, McGregor, Schadeberg and others that still has not been recognized in the country where they came from – in South Africa.
Jazz Against Apartheid: “Beyond Exile” contributes to this knowledge within South Africa of South African music and musicians and what they continue to stand for.
For 36 years JAA has created and presented concerts that express and explore the depth of meaning and potential not only ni the music -cultural expressions presented, but also ni the context ofcultural exchange and international cooperation.
ALLEN JACOBSON
To become familiar with a part of our own exile history aims in different directions. On the one hand, we want to make an essential aspect of the buried cultural heritage accessible to a young generation of professional jazz musicians who have grown up in the post-apartheid society. And also to make others aware with this “homecoming” of the richness of the artistic heritage that has been cultivated over decades in Europe and especially in Germany.
Because this exchange is not a one-way street, we also want to give the young jazz musicians in South Africa the opportunity to encounter the contemporary influences of Europe in this music, as they are embodied and audible in our project
Jazz Against Apartheid is a bridge between geography and history, impacting on the future generations of South Africans and back on German society, asking what developments are possible from (exile) history.
The South African Exile Timeline is 1960-1994 and is marked by the milestones of the 1956 Defiance Campaign/1960 Sharpeville Massacre, 1976 Soweto Students Uprising, the 1984 State of Emergency 1 & 2 and the first democracy elections on April 27, 1994.
An important component of exile is the continental Africa and the international impact of S.A. exiles abroad and their contributions through performance and publication. Liberation and the fight for democracy was the conveyor belt that carried all art forms – music, dance choreography, musical theatre, cabaret, fashion, painting, photography and poetry across the entire planet. Our heritage is our identity!
Exile countries included Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola, Tanzania, Nigeria, USA, Canada, United Kingdom, European Union, USSR and East Europe.
Many of the true heroes of the struggle for democracy in exile include liberation struggle leaders, student, labour women leaders, academic leaders, professions like teaching and nursing, musicians, visual artists, photographers, writers, theatre, dance performance, filmmakers, sculptors, innovators, awardees.
The movement of exiles to various locations abroad began after the twin events of the Defiance Campaign in the 1950s and the Sharpeville Massacre beginning 1960s which led to activists to be jailed, banished, banned and pushed into exile. The Soweto Students’ Uprising in 1976, catapulted thousands of primary, high school and university students to swell the exile ranks by a large margin. The State of Emergency 1 & 2 in 1982 & 1984 saw many activists skipping the country.
Our events of Beyond Exile are the beginning of a documentation of the political leaders, journalists, students, teachers, professionals moving across the border to Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Tanzania. The countries housing S.A. exiles also expanded to include Angola, Mozambique, Nigeria, the United Kingdom, America, Canada, European Union, USSR and East Europe.
Beyond Exile is the documentation of the liberation movement, the ANC, the PAC and BCM who absorbed the refugees as they opted either for military training or furthering their studies. Those who were already professionals like the nurses and teachers in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana, settled to start families.
Beyond Exile is a documentation of the cultural solidarity movements abroad such as the Artists Against Apartheid movement founded in Sweden, the Sechaba Cultural programmes in New York and the Jazz Against Apartheid movement founded in Frankfurt.
These programmes provided an extensive and prolific run of multi-cultural events, particularly in the exile locations of Frankfurt, London, Copenhagen, Zurich, Stockholm, Belgium, Poland, New York and Los Angeles from the early 60s up to democracy in 1994, highlighted the role of cultural activism in the anti-apartheid struggle whilst building a growing solidarity abroad that in its totality defeated apartheid and created the democracy, we are celebrating 30 years of today.
“Beyond Exile has such depth of meaning and potential not only in the music and cultural expressions presented, but also in the context of cultural exchange and international cooperation,”
allen jacobson
