Freedom from every perspective is our mandate to bring positive and sustainable change.
JAA is born out of a history Institutionalized racism on the one hand, denial and defense of exile on the other. Through an interconnected and multiplied working methodology, a new generation of arts activists is processing the experiences that brought us together artistically? Cultural activism flow into the oeuvre and consciousness of artistic work through the principle of togetherness. United in a cause for equality we achieve a better future for all …
Jazz’s mandate for social change can be traced back to the first cry of a woman, but in this context we celebrate bassist and composer Johnny Mbizo Dyani. He with the famous Blue Notes was on of the first to go into exile in Europe and take with him a strong commitment for change.
Although apartheid is dead and jazz fought the struggle for change and won. This struggle for change continues. This change is united by a multi-facetted approach to restoring South Africa’s cultural memory. Not only are the sources of jazz wordwide, African, but the freedom of jazz expression combined with political commitment is an umbrella for all arts, cultural activism and liberation to express itself
From its founding in Frankfurt am Main in 1985 as a progressive art platform and social movement that drew attention to the problems in apartheid South Africa, today it not only returns to its roots in the Eastern Cape, the native language of the Xhosa and the deep tradition of Xhosa spirituality, but in turn impacts back on German society, asking what developments are possible from (exile) history. This project is about such a profound cross-fertilization.
There is a national library in Frankfurt that has a permanent exhibition called, “Exile”, and it refers to the period of the Nazi regime, 1933 until 1945. And it shows the destinies of people who had to go into exile during those 12 years and what happened afterwards.
Neville Alexander, South African political scientist, said to Juergen, “Don’t be astonished if what will happen in South Africa, will be more or less the same, as what happened in Germany, that the ones who are went into exile are not welcome when they come home to their own countries.
This is an experience that German intellectual artists had when they had to leave, Nazi Germany during the Nazi period. When they returned, they were looked upon with suspicion or outright rejection. The quote “to return or to stay,” is a quote by a German author called Klaus Mann, he is the son of Thomas Mann. Jazz Against Apartheid changed this to say between returning and staying in exile. It’s that situation in-between. You’re not quite home at home. You’re in an existence in-between because of the experiences of the people in exile.
As Jürgen Leinhos explained, “If conditions are bad, for people, if the political conditions are awful, it’s usually the best people who leave a country and who have their works, done not in the country they live. It’s that people who go into exile, very often create marvellous works in exile in those conditions under exile. It was not just musicians, not just artists, also political people like Neville Alexander. Under the conditions of exile they do create wonderful works. 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.”
This was part of the special mission of Jazz Against Apartheid, Jürgen Leinhos and his Frankfurt-based initiative “Kultur im Ghetto” (Culture in the Ghetto).
South Africa and Germany 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.
With Leinhos’s life’s work being recognised in South Africa with the prestigious OR Tambo presidential award (2021), a space was created for the political and cultural 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.
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. JAA is a testimony to the passionate struggle against apartheid, a biography of a life in exile and a complete documentation of 25 years of exile history.