Music from South Africa!

Song from tragic SA female super-group Joy (1980).
Still immensely popular in SA.

Joy - Paradise Road:



Joy were a female vocal group consisting of Anneline Malebo, Thoko Ndlovu and Felicia Marion.
Like many SA groups they had a moment of near international breakthrough, but through personal problems or mismanagement and management greed they fell back into obscurity.

Joy was remembered in 2002 when SA Idols contestants covered the song.
Then it turned out that former Joy lead-vocalist Anneline Malebo was a rape survivor and AIDS victim.
The government infamously refused to supply ARVs due to quack theories, and Malebo lived outside the small areas with internationally funded pilot projects.
Tragic, to say the least.
For more see: beta.mnet.co.za...

Miriam Makeba.

"Mama Afrika" with the Pata Pata!



From a Youtube playlist of Miriam Makeba songs, beginning with the Swahili song Malaika to her last concerts in Norway (2008).

Four Jacks and a Jill - Master Jack (original from 1968).
Some say it had a political meaning; I'm not sure.
Everything liberal back then had to be disguised, I suppose.
Apparently it charted in the US.

Clout - Substitute.

Possibly the biggest breakthrough ever, which reached no. 1 position in several countries.
But economic and cultural sanctions were looming.
Clout broke-up in 1981.



For more see: en.wikipedia.org...

Dozi - Lisa se Klavier (Lisa's Piano, with English subtitles).

Lucky Dube - One People (Different Colors).

Possibly one of the best reggae songs since the music of Bob Marley, and I hope everyone has a chance to listen.

Die Kaplyn (Afrikaans with English subtitles).
A song by Bok Van Blerk.

It refers to a "cutline" or border into which white South Africans were pulled in a proxy war started by the US.

Still debated today, some say it saved us from Marxism.
Whatever the case, many people were in that war, or raised to fight that war.
Yet there is no recognition.
Some say it was SA's Vietnam, but veterans were simply ignored and left to fend for themselves.

Now they say these boys died for an "apartheid army" in Angola.
But that's not what they fought for at all.
They fought with black people.
They fought to save us from the horrors of communism.
That's what we were told.

A forgotten and unmentionable war.
Yet people endured and survived it, and did their best for what they believed was their country.

Laurike Rauch - Stuur Groete aan Mannetjies Roux (Send greetings to Mannetjies Roux).

Now a world-famous song translated into several languages.

It's about the depression years, and how a young girl views the stoic struggles of her uncle against the elements and the bank to save his farm.
At the end he just sends greetings to "Mannetjies Roux" who was a famous rugby player, and the uncle's eyes are closed for ever.

Randall Wicomb - Dans met die Rooi Rok. (Dance with the red dress)

SA singing sensation Kimmy Skota - My African Dream.

According to the Youtube link:

Song "My African Dream" performed by André Rieu with Johann Strauss orchestra and Kimmy Skota, Mirusia Louwerse, Kalki Schrijvers and The Platin Tenors (Gary Bennett, Thomas Greuel, Béla Mavrák) in South-Africa

Hugh Masekela - Thanayi:



Hugh Masekela - Grazing in the grass:

SA jazz legend Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly known as Dollar Brand) - Mannenberg.

Today the song may sound like a pleasant, happy jazz tune that would fit into the club scene. In June 1974 Black people were dancing alright, dancing in the street fighting apartheid. The song is named for a suburban area of Cape Town, South Africa. The Cape Flats township was spelled with two “n’s” (Manenberg) but when the album was released they used three n’s in the name.
BITTERNESS AND VIGOROUS PROTEST
Mannenberg the song aroused a gut reaction among Capetonians at the time as it “spoke” eloquently of the forced removals of black people out of District Six and into the bleak and distant new racially explicit “group areas” like Manenberg.

www.kalamu.com...

Juluka - Impi (1981)

The Parlotones - Beautiful.

I love the chorus: "You are all beautiful, you are all magical ... deserve to be adored!"

Springbok Nude Girls live at London's Astoria Theater (2007):

Mafikizolo - Ndihamba Nawe.
(Going together, to get married.)

Possibly the best SA songs and cross-over music ever.

A keen ear for musical history and career-making musicals like King Kong, Ipi Tombi and Sarafina.

Mango Groove (man go groove) had some of the most memorable and best songs.

They still bring tears to my eyes today.

Wheresoever you are in the world, the sound of Mango Groove will bring you home to South Africa.

From the 1990s - Special Star:

Mango Groove - Hometalk.
Hometalk - takes me home, yes it does.
Pretty crappy old videos made with what was left of disinvestment, but what powerful songs!



The song of a new type of SA migrant:

Mango Groove - Another Country:

Elvis Blue - Lighthouse:

Southern African heavy metal:

From our neighbors in Botswana, Skinflint with Iklwa:



Voice of Destruction (VOD): Religion:



Afrikaans metal live at the Ramfest.
Mind Assault - Volksmoord (Genocide):