Johnny Clegg: The Knight & The King
by Sheldon Rocha Leal
After Johnny Clegg’s passing about 2 weeks ago, I started reflecting on his influence on pop culture and South African (SA) race relations. My earliest memory of the “Le Zoulou Blanc” was 1986, I was 10 years old and I watched a movie that emotionally affected me for the longest time. The movie was “Jock of the Bushveld”, which I watched one too many times, a story about a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and his owner (animal stories always kill me). The theme song for the movie was a Johnny Clegg track entitled “Great Heart”. The song fits seamlessly with the theme of the movie. Johnny and his songs were the soundtrack for part of my childhood.
Fast forward 30 years and I was completing my PhD and I was on a mission to set up interviews with stakeholders from the music industry. One of the class of individuals I was interviewing were individuals who had not only made an impact on mass popular culture in SA, but who had also influenced race relations. I had already interviewed one of my idols Yvonne Chaka Chaka and I wanted to set-up an interview with Johnny Clegg. After speaking to his people, I was informed that he was too ill to do the interview. I was sad, but completely understood the situation.
At this point I started reflecting on mortality, death and my dad. My dad, was a big music lover and one of the musicians with whom he most resonated was Elvis Presley, whose music was the soundtrack of his childhood. Once Johnny Clegg passed I started reflecting on Johnny, my dad and Elvis Presley and started connecting the dots: these two iconic recording artists had more in common than just being than the authors of the soundtracks to both mine and my father’s childhoods, they were also social innovators.
Elvis Presley
In 1954 a 19 year old Elvis Presley released his first single, “That’s All Right”. The song is considered the first Rock ‘n Roll single in music history and it ushered in not only a musical, but also a cultural revolution. For the first time in history the youth were making music marketed at the youth, any kid could, with limited knowledge of music, create a hit and the blending of R&B and Country created a music that crossed racial boundaries. This hybridization of black and white music, brought young musicians of both genres together in an effort to generate more Rock ‘n Roll content. Racial cohesion was introduced in the music world and some social commentators/academics have suggested that the music revolution of the mid-1950s was a catalyst for the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, a movement that saw the alignment of the rights of black and white people in the USA.
Although the USA was highly segregated when Elvis Presley attained worldwide recognition he was publicly always very vocal about the fact that without Gospel and Blues there would have never been Rock ‘n Roll. He credited artists like BB King, Fats Domino, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and Ivory Joe Hunter as major influencers in his career and the reason why he did what he did. Many commentators were surprised about his public recognition of black musicians. As the King of Rock ‘n Roll and one of the most successful recording artists of all time, he is considered one of the key protagonists in the social change that unfolded in the USA in the 1960s.
Even though Elvis Presley was not overtly political he was considered a maverick icon and a social reformist. For his contributions to social change and because of his impact in the music business, he was honoured by a plethora of organizations, including: The Official Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame; Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame; Country Music Hall of Fame; Gospel Hall of Fame. He is the only artist in history to be inducted into all four Halls of Fame. In 1984, he was recognized with the WC Handy Award from the Blues Foundation in Memphis, posthumously, for keeping the Blues alive in his music. In 2018 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump, the highest civilian honour granted by the US government to an individual for “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.
The Strife
As with Elvis, Johnny Clegg was a conduit for social change at a time when SA was at the height of social inequity and as with Elvis Presley, although he was not overtly political, his songs played an integral role in the social reformation the took place in the country a decade after he attained worldwide recognition. Johnny Clegg’s journey, as a social innovator, was possibly more difficult than Elvis’ as there was legislation that would have prevented overtly political statements from being distributed in the mass media, in the Apartheid era.
All creative output was scrutinized by a censorship board housed at the SABC (South African Broadcast Corporation) and the Directorate of Publications, regulated by the Publications Act of 1974 and any offending works or artists were banned. Many international artists, who were opposed to the Apartheid regime were not permitted to release works in SA and were banned from coming into the country, amongst them: Stevie Wonder; The Beatles; Pink Floyd; Rodriguez; U2; Bob Dylan; Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen. Local artists who released offending works were arrested and their works banned. An example of this was Johnny Clegg’s song “Asimbonanga”, which eluded to Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko in the lyrics. This resulted in concerts being raided by the police and arrests of band members owing to their defiance in playing the banned song publicly.
Johnny Clegg the Early Days
But who was this social innovator? Johnny Clegg was born in Lancashire in the UK on the 7th of June 1953 to an English dad and Rhodesian mom. His parents divorced when he was very young and his mom moved the family to Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe). Although his mother was born in Rhodesia, she was of Polish/Jewish descent and at some point in his childhood Clegg spent part of a year in Israel. As a child he led a secular upbringing and even though he was instructed on the basics of Judaism, he refused to have a Bar Mitzvah and seldomly associated with his Jewish schoolmates. At the age of 6 the family relocated to South Africa and he was brought up in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.
As an adolescent he was attracted to Zulu culture and after meeting Charlie Mzila, a domestic worker and part-time musician, he immersed himself in Zulu culture, dance and music. He learnt how to speak the language, play the guitar in the Maskandi style and dance in the Isishameni dance styles of the migrant workers in the region. Although engrossing oneself in other people’s cultures is something that is celebrated today, it was highly frowned upon during the Apartheid era. There were various laws enacted at the time that forbade people of different races and cultures from interacting with each other, inhabiting the same space and even the free movement of people. These discriminatory laws included: The Reservation of Separate Amenities Act; Immorality Act; Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act; Group Areas Act; Aliens Control Act; Natives Urban Areas Act; Unlawful Organisations Act. This placed Johnny Clegg and his innocent activities on a collision course with the authorities and at the age of 15 he was arrested for the first of many times for consorting with the “enemy”.
Juluka
At the age of 16, he met a Zulu migrant worker by the name of Sipho Mchunu, on the streets of Johannesburg, who challenged him to a guitar dual. The two struck up a long lasting friendship and formed the band Juluka. The friends would often perform as a duo on the streets of Johannesburg and had to keep a low profile, as what they were doing was illegal. Johnny was often arrested and harassed by the police for his illicit activities. Their popularity grew by word of mouth. After completing school, Clegg went to WITS University, where he completed a degree and pursued a 4 year career as an anthropology lecturer and academic at his “alma mater” and the University of Natal. As an academic who wrote a few seminal papers on Zulu culture, music and dance.
Concurrently his band continued to perform and in 1976 they release their debut album, “Universal Men”. The album attracted critical acclaim. By 1981 the band had grown to become a quintet and they released a second album entitled “African Litany”. Whilst this album and the single “Impi” brought them international recognition, because of the perceived political nature of the single, which detailed the defeat of the British Colonial armies at the hands of the Zulu’s at the Battle of Isandlwana in 1879, the song and band were banned on South African radio stations. The acclaim, however, afforded them the opportunity to tour and travel internationally, mainly in North America and Europe. In 1985 Mchunu had grown tired of all the touring and traveling and felt that he had accumulated enough money to retire. He therefore decided to return to his family farm in Natal to take care of his relatives and Juluka split.
Savuka
Out of the ashes of Juluka, Savuka was born, which garnered Johnny Clegg far greater acclaim and commercial success than he had ever achieved with his first band. Many of the musicians that populated Savuka, had at some point collaborated with Johnny on Jaluka. The band blended elements of Zulu traditional music, with Celtic and Rock music to form a new musical hybrid. At one point Savuka was the second most successful SA band, after Ladysmith Black Mambazo, outside of the country, with France being their most receptive market. It is even reported that Michael Jackson once cancelled one of his shows in Lyon, stating that Johnny Clegg and his band (who were performing in a nearby stadium) had stolen all his fans.
As with Juluka many of the band’s creative output was banned on radio, especially the 1987 song “Asimbonanga”, mentioned earlier, which was covered by Joan Baez for her 1987 album “Recently”. Her version of the song was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1988 for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. In 1992 one of the key members of the band, Dudu Zulu, was killed whilst trying to mediate a dispute between rival taxi groups. His death resulted in the dissolution of the band. The song “The Crossing” was written as a tribute to the percussionist.
Solo Years and Recognition
At this point Johnny entered his solo years. In 1996 a Jaluka reunion was orchestrated and between 2002 and 2017 he released 4 solo albums, 3 live albums, 2 DVDs and toured extensively. He started cutting back on appearances and performances in 2017 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Between his two bands and solo career Johnny Clegg released approximately 16 studio albums, 4 live albums, 8 compilation albums, 2 DVDs and 19 singles in a career that spanned 43 years.
He also contributed music to various motion pictures including most famously “Great Heart” for the movie based on a book written by the legendary SA author, Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, “Jock Of The Bushveld” in 1986. “Dela” another one of his songs was used in the “George of the Jungle” soundtrack in 1997 and its sequel in 2003, whilst “Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World” was used on the motion picture soundtracks of “Opportunity Knocks” (1990) and “Career Opportunities” (1991). “Life is a Magic Thing” was used on the “FernGully: The Last Rainforest” (1992) soundtrack, whilst “Scatterlings of Africa” was used on the Oscar winning movie “Rain Man’s” motion picture soundtrack (1988). Johnny Clegg also produced 2 songs on the 1994 “Power of One” motion picture soundtrack.
As with Elvis Presley, Johnny Clegg was honoured by various organizations as a social reformer, iconic musician and recording artist. These awards include:
- The Chevalier Des Arts Et Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) by the French government in 1991.
- 5 Honorary Doctorates from: the University of the Witwatersrand (2007); City University of New York School of Law (2011); Dartmouth College in Humane Letters (2012); University of KwaZulu-Natal in Music (2013); Durban University of Technology in Visual and Performing Arts (2018).
- Order of the Ikhamanga from the SA government (2012). The highest order a civilian can receive in the country.
- Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) (2015).
- In 2004 he was voted 23rd on SABC 3’s pole of Greatest South Africans.
- Billboard Music Award in the category Best World Album for “Heat, Dust and Dreams” (1994).
- KORA All Africa Music Award for Best African Group (1998).
He was also nominated for a Grammy Award in 1993 in the category Best World Music Award for his album “Heat, Dust and Dreams”.
So as a social innovator Johnny, like Elvis, paved the way for a societal revolution which took place the decade that proceeded his introduction to the music industry. He may not have made overtly political statements in his music, but he brought black and white traditions of music together in SA, generating a greater understanding of these two racial group’s traditions and cultures. This hybridization of music allowed people to gain a greater understanding of each other’s cultures and facilitated the social revolution that took place in the 1990s.
As a recording artist, as with Elvis, he opened the doors for many up-and-coming musicians and performers, by introducing a new hybrid genre of music and stage performances. Finally as Elvis before him, he was honoured and revered by both the music industry and societal organizations around the world. Johnny Clegg and Elvis Presley show that it really only does take a few people to make a big change and that we are all responsible for “the change”. Ultimately Johnny Clegg leaves this world having made it a better place than what he found, just as Elvis Presley had done two decades before him and hopefully their stories will inspire others to be the change we wish to see in the world (Mahatma Gandhi).
