Washington, DC — Johnny Clegg is a singer/songwriter who grew up in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia and is best known for his work with Sipho Mchunu as part of the band Juluka. His later work with Savuka brought in a more international rock flavour.
Juluka's music was banned in South Africa in the early 1980s because they mixed English and Zulu lyrics, which was forbidden under strict apartheid laws. Even though this mixing was inherently political for apartheid South Africa, Clegg has said that the only intentionlly political song Juluka has ever written was "Work for All." Later, Savuka was banned from performing because they did write songs with a political message, as Clegg joined the UDF and became involved in the Anti-Conscription Campaign.
Clegg spoke with AllAfrica's Tali Trigg while in the midst of his tour of Europe and the United States, playing primarily Juluka and Savuka hits.
You are here on your North American tour and you just came back from Canada. Which songs from your long career will you be playing for audiences?
We are featuring the music of Juluka and Savuka. There are one or two songs from "New World Survivor," but really we are positioning the band this year with promoters, agents, and management. It is a shopping, platforming, and positioning exercise. Because we have neglected the States now for some eight years, we need to reestablish ourselves as a touring option in the States. That [is] really what it is about. All the songs I have ever done are part of the repertoire.
What has most surprised you during the North American tour?
What is interesting to me is that everybody is getting to our shows and we have no profile in the media whatsoever - no videos out, no album. We have no airplay, nothing. And I think through the Internet mainly, we are still getting 75 - 80 percent [capacity], and full houses. We had full houses in Vancouver, Portland, Seattle. And we are probably going to get it tomorrow at Boston, at [Dartmouth] university.
Why is music so compelling for you?
I've been playing music for 30 years now. I'm a performer. I enjoy performing. I enjoy communicating and sharing ideas. Music has got a lot of issues. It has been an issue-driven music.
I was an anthropologist by training. I was an academic. I taught for four years between 1978-82. I've just simply been fascinated by Africa as a cradle of mankind, as the birthplace of the first scattering of Homo sapiens across the planet. Also, I came from a country that forbade the mixing of culture, through cultural segregation and other enforced laws, so I was immediately attracted to the other side. Anthropology was a natural continuation of an interest I developed at the age of 14, hanging out with street musicians, learning Zulu, learning to dance, learning to sing and compose, all in the street music tradition.
Your relationship to music has clearly changed over time. How would you say that your music now relates to the new South Africa?
For me, [it's] a cultural journey to find out what it is to be a South African, what it is to be a South African in the world. There are two layers to that: one is about a situation where we have our first ten years of democracy, but we do not really have nation [or] a common identity. We have eleven official languages in the constitution. It's almost unheard of. We are at a fascinating moment and different South Africans have different ideas of what it is to be a South African, what it means to be a citizen. In all of that, I find myself at a very interesting time in South Africa where there is so much flux, change and movement. Languages are breaking down; languages are bleeding into each other. Indian words are coming into Africa. Afrikaans is coming in and a new hip urban kind of verbal style. All of these things for me as an anthropologist are fascinating. I've always been fascinated by what I do.
How does language relate to your music?
We sing in Zulu and English. We use traditional and urban black melodies and harmonies. We use traditional Zulu guitar. We use urban township/afro pop guitar. We mix everything. Rock and western pop as well comes in. It's what we like.
How would you say that the music scene has changed in South Africa?
The music scene has been very affected by the impact of hip hop and rap in all of South Africa. I've seen rappers rapping in Wolof. It's incredible the impact it's had. I think the black American experience will always be a flagship musical force affecting many African communities. In South Africa, we have a new music called Kwaito. Kwaito is like a rap/hip hop/mélange of local and international songs.
It seems that your instruments, languages and messages keep changing along with South Africa. Is there almost a symbiotic relationship?
South Africa has advanced in its perception of what we should be doing. I find that in Europe and America there are a lot of cultural barriers. In South Africa, there seems to be room to move and that's what I like about it. There's room to experiment. There's room to create new things. There are very fixed communities in Europe, very fixed relationships between communities, which have evolved over a long time. We're still busy doing this, it's still very new to us.
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Concerning future plans, I believe you are going to Europe next week?
We just came from Europe and now we're going back to Europe. We did France, Switzerland, London, Switzerland, France, Canada, U.S., France, and then back to South Africa and to Reunion Island. Then back to Europe: Germany and Holland, and that's it for this year.
That's pretty good. So where do you actually live then?
Johannesburg.
Your base of operations?
That's my base.
Do you have any future plans as far as albums and music?
We're finishing - hope to finish - an album [in October]. We'll be back in the States. We'll be releasing through a local company. It's all being negotiated at the moment. I do not have representation in America, so I put this trip together. I'm running it. I'm the manager of the whole thing. I've put up funds. I've put up everything so that we could get the thing going. And that's it, and I'm hoping that next year I'll have somebody in the States that will represent us and give us the ability to keep playing live. We're a live band.
