It’s amazing how many elements of my life converged into my recent visit to Cape Town.  I went there to record a project involving a South African hymn, but it just so happens that I’ve also been working (composition and production) on a song for the last couple of months for the new Jenny Burton CD.  The name of the song is “South Africa” and it was actually written for The Jenny Burton Experience about 10 years ago.

It was done as a tour de force production number at a time when the focus of the world was on Nelson Mandela and the historic happenings at the end of Apartheid.  Each night when the song was passionately performed, the audience, black and white, would rise to their feet in full-throated exuberance at the end.  It was one of the power point moments of The Jenny Burton Experience.

Under the heading of “You Probably Know This But…”, I thought the following info was worth repeating:

Apartheid — An Afrikaans word meaning ‘apartness’

During most of the 20th century, South Africa was ruled by a system called Apartheid, which was based on the segregation of races.

During the 1960s, racial discrimination applied to most aspects of life in South Africa and Bantustans (territories set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South-West Africa, now Namibia) were created for Blacks. The system had evolved into ‘Grand Apartheid’. The country was rocked by the Sharpeville Massacre, the African National Congress (ANC) and Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) were banned, and the country withdrew from the British Commonwealth and declared a Republic.

During the 1970s and 80s Apartheid was reinvented – a result of increasing internal and international pressures and worsening economic difficulties. Black youth was exposed to increasing politicization, and found expression against ‘Bantu education’ through the 1976 Soweto Uprising. Despite the creation of a tri-cameral parliament in 1983 and the abolition of the Pass Laws in 1986, the 1980s saw the worst political violence by both sides.

In February 1990 President FW de Klerk announced Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and began the slow dismantling of the Apartheid system. In 1992 a whites-only referendum approved the reform process. In 1994 the first democratic elections were held in South Africa, with people of all races being able to vote. A Government of National Unity was formed, with Nelson Mandela as president and FW de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki as deputy presidents.

At that time, the end of Apartheid was changing the world for the better.  It struck me that the litmus test for the racial progress that had been evolving in the U.S. would always be judged by the progress of equality in South Africa.  We, as a people, could rise no higher in thought than what we allowed to happen in South Africa.  Hence, we look to South Africa to see the true nature of our progress.

Now, more than a decade later, it is worth reinvestigation.  My trip to Cape Town and my subsequent visit to its African Township, Masiphumelele, revealed to me that, though things are better, there’s still great work that must be done and enormous progress yet to be made.  The relevancy of this song to the world today is still vital and it’s impact still potent.  The great need for this cry for true freedom still exists.

Like I said, progress has been made, but we still got a long way to go, bro’.

SOUTH AFRICA

Music and Lyrics by Peter Link
Zulu Translations by Jimmy Mgwandi

We come from Soweto
We come from a great confusion
We come from the ghetto
We look to South Africa
We look to South Africa

We come from Zimbabwe
We come from the streets of Harlem
We come from a new age
We know where the times have gone
So we go where the lines are drawn

We come from Botswanna
We come from a deep frustration
We come from Atlanta
We look to South Africa
We look to South Africa

Ah there I see in the great Serengeti
The hope of our ancestors
Standing before me
I see in the ancient still mountains
And shining blue waters
The strength of Mandela
And still in the shanties of Cape Town
The voices of children sing
“Power to the people”    Amandla  awaytu
“Power to the people”    Amandla  awaytu
“Power to the people”    Awaytu

We come from Uganda
We come from the mask of slavery
We come from South Central
We look to South Africa
We look to South Africa

And now we look to the slums of Pretoria
To show us the way
As the straw shows the way of the wind
For there in the mood of South Africa
Lies a measure of truth
The writing is there on the wall
Where it always has been

We come from the bread lines
We come from the blackboard jungles
We rise from the confines
Impelled by the hand of God
We look to South Africa

Ah there I see upon Kilimanjaro
The souls of our forefathers
Standing before us
The mem’ries of Medgar
And Malcolm and Martin
Run deep in our blood
The fires of apartheid
Still burn through the tears screaming
“Power to the people”    Amandla  awaytu
“Power to the people”    Amandla  awaytu
“Power to the people”    Awaytu

We come from Soweto
We come from the Zulu nation
We come from the ghetto
We look to South Africa    Oomzahntsi Africa
We look to South Africa    Oomzahntsi Africa

We look to South Africa    Oomzahntsi Africa
We look to South Africa    Oomzahntsi Africa

Amandla awaytu
Amandla awaytu
Hiee hiee hiee
Ah su gah mahn!

Amandla awaytu
Amandla awaytu

Geen goo bah nee me
Nah gahn gah
Pahn dleh gko baba

Gee ah bongah weh baba
Gee nee geze incooluleco

Oom zahn tsi  afreeca

We come from the bread lines
We come from the blackboard jungles
We rise from the confines
Impelled by the hand of God

We come from Soweto
We come from the Zulu nation
We come from the ghetto
We look to South Africa!

Zulu to English Translations:

A-MAN-DLA   A-WAY-TU           (Power to the people)

OOM-ZAHN-TSI   A-FRI-CA         (Down in South Africa)

GEEN-GOO-BAH-NEE-ME
NAH-GAHN-GAH
PAHN-DLEH-GKO-BAH-BAH           (Who am I without God and freedom)

GEE-NEE-GEZE  IN-
COO-LU–LE-CO               (Give me freedom)

GEE-AH-BONGAH-WEH-BABA         (I thank you Lord)