JULUKA : AFRICAN MUSICAL GROUP THAT IS CAUSING WAVES IN SOUTH AFRICA - AN ARTICLE THAT WAS PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS TRUST OF SOUTH AFRICA INDEPENDENT THIRD WORLD NEWS AGENCY IN DECEMBER 1984

INTRO: The passing away of one of South Africa’s most recognised and established musician, Johnny Clegg, last week brought to a close the life of a “white boy” who fully promoted the ideals of a new South Africa that was not the norm during the apartheid days. The story of Johnny Clegg and his fellow musician, Sipho Mchunu, was highlighted during the dark days of apartheid by the then Durban-based alternative news agency, Press Trust of South Africa (PTSA), in an article sometime in December 1984. PTSA was headed by journalist, Subry Govender. The article, “Juluka: African musical group that is causing waves in South Africa”, was published after Johnny Clegg was interviewed in Durban. The article was circulated to media outlets around the world. The article is published here as a tribute to Johnny Clegg. December 18 1984

Juluka One A multi-racial South African musical group is fast becoming something of a phenomenon because of its concentration on traditional African Zulu music that tells the joys and sorrows of South African life. The musical group is Juluka, a Zulu word which means “sweat generated through struggle”. The history of Juluka is the story of a 15-year relationship between a white boy, Johnny Clegg, and a migrant worker, Sipho Mchunu. Johnny Clegg was born in England in 1953 but moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, with his mother when he was six-years-old. At the age of 14 he became entranced by the dynamic culture of the thousands of black migrant workers who lived and worked in the “white” cities. He was so fascinated by the culture of the Zulu migrant workers that he asked a black cleaner in a block of flats where he lived, Charlie Mzila, to teach him how to speak Zulu, play the Zulu guitar and “Ingoma” dancing. Charlie became Johnny’s “foster father”. At night he took the eager schoolboy into the vibrant and often hostile black migrant hostels and townships where the city’s vast African migrant workers lived. Johnny was regarded as something of a phenomenon by the residents and was readily accepted into their usually close-knit communities. His acceptance was such that he was allowed to practice with one of the city’s top dance groups. In this period, he learned to speak impeccable Zulu while his dancing and guitar techniques improved all the time. Johnny was so good that the hostel dwellers began to talk about him. What his hostel dweller friends did not know that Johnny was a privileged person who received a first- class education and eventually graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand. Sipho Mchunu, on the other hand, came from a traditional Zulu background. The youngest son of a well-to-do herbalist he was born in the KwaZulu bantustan in 1951. Because of the strong traditional nature of his family, only the eldest were allowed to attend school. Sipho had to be content with looking after the family’s cattle in the veld. It was here that he learnt and refined many of the Zulu dancing and guitar techniques that were to prove invaluable in his future. When he was 16 his father died and the family fortune collapsed. He was then forced, like hundreds of thousand s of other fellow Zulu people, to seek work in the “white” cities. He went to the port city of Durban and found work as a gardener but gave it up as the “work was hard and the pay too low”. He soon succumbed to the call of “Egoli” – Johannesburg – “the city of gold”. In Johannesburg, he found another gardening job in the plush white suburb of Houghton. Like Johnny, Sipho began to lead a double life – gardening during the day and playing music and dancing at night. While performing at one of the hostels he heard about a white boy who played Zulu guitar and danced Ingoma. Sipho was deeply offended. He wanted to find this “whitey” and give him a hiding because he was denigrating his culture. However, when he met Johnny, he realised what the “white boy” was doing was not a travesty. It was something fascinating. Johnny, for his part, recognised that Sipho was one of the most talented guitar players he had come into contact with. Mutual respect was instant and a friendship immediately developed. At night they went everywhere together. Johnny recalls that he was arrested time and time again for going into black areas in defiance of the country’s apartheid laws. He was too young to be jailed. Instead the police used to telephone his mother to complain that her son had been found in places “where they (police) only went with their guns”. Even when he went to Sipho’s homestead in the KwaZulu Bantustan, the police were not far behind. Once he was ejected from the bantustan by the security police for not having the required documentation. However, despite the artificial constraints of apartheid their friendship blossomed and was actually strengthened by it. They formed themselves into a Zulu music and dance duo, simply called “Johnny and Sipho”. The duo played where ever they could – from the servants’ quarters of black domestics in white areas to illicit drinking and gambling dens in the townships, and from bohemian white folk music clubs to black miners’ compounds. They just wanted to spread their music. In 1976 they cut four singles but remained by and large “unknown”. In 1979 they were “discovered” by a record producer who had instructions to find “new talent” for his record company. In that year they cut their first album, “Universal Man”. Juluka used standard western instruments to play a bland of western folk/rock fused with Zulu street guitar riffs and other African rhythms – locally known as “Mbaqanga”. They also used a combination of Zulu and English in their lyrics. Since Juluka have established themselves in the frontline of South African music, the band has come under some criticism over its musical content. Some Juluka fans are bitterly disappointed at the new, more ‘westernised’ direction that the group has taken. These critics have accused Juluka, particularly Johnny (the unofficial spokesperson for the band) of being “cultural mercenaries” – taking what is essentially African and transforming it into a “bastardized” form of western rock. Many of these critics, however, failed to realise that Juluka is still essentially an African band – playing African music and singing about Africa. Juluka use an art form to express their own experiences in South Africa – to put it blandly, they are using music to express the unique relationship that exists between Johnny and Sipho – a relationship which by the “apartheid law of averages” should never have occurred. Juluka’s music is a celebration of what South Africa should be like – a non-racial, uni-cultural nation. A more meaningful criticism of Juluka comes from a more distant political level – not because of their political stance but because of the particular brand of music they play. As the band’s music is ethnically-based it is viewed as supportive of apartheid. People feel the “new culture” of South Africa should be aimed at weakening the tribal/ethnic divisions that are ingrained in African migrant workers. But the people understand that Juluka’s ethnicity can in no way be interpreted as support for apartheid. Juluka, by their own admission, is a cultural band and not a political one – their songs contain few statements which can be considered as revolutionary. However, the band has made it abundantly clear that they oppose apartheid and all its attendant evils. They have stated they support all anti-apartheid organisations in the struggles for full human rights for all South Africans. Ends. From: Press Trust of South Africa Independent Third World News Agency (December 18 1984)