November 7th, 2008
Black Liberation | Lived Experiences | Memorials | Music
Music in South Africa
Song became a principle element of the struggle during the apartheid regime. Consequently, the research involved investigating why music took such a pivotal role. The project addressed why people chose to sing rather than fight, what effect song had on those who sang and those who were sung to, and what they hoped to achieve through singing. To answer some of these questions, students interviewed several residents of King William’s Town who had sung some of these songs in their youth. Major interviews were with Miss Nobulunku Nbongco, currently a police woman, and Mrs. Gloria Piliso who is presently teaching at a local primary school in King William’s Town.
Liberation music was used in one way or another to advance the liberation struggle. The songs that the masses sang included those that offered comfort and hope during times of hardships, those that praised their imprisoned leaders and criticized their oppressors, and those more aggressive songs that when sung, induced fear in the security police. Song became a common voice for the oppressed masses as well as a formidable multi-purpose weapon against the oppressive apartheid government. Consequently, song was an important aspect of the struggle, which was used effectively to fit the immediate conditions.
(Photo Copyright © 2010, Ryan Koons)
Podcast: Comfort, Engagement, Encouragement, Dissent: Freedom and Liberation Songs during the Anti-Apartheid Struggle
Created by Atandi Anyona and Ryan Koons
Music in Mississippi
Just as in South Africa, liberation music also played a role in the civil rights struggles of the American South. From research in Mississippi, the research team came into contact with two forms of music which expressed the conditions of the South: gospel and blues.
The most notable of the gospel songs was “We Shall Overcome” which accompanied sit-ins, protest marches and worker strikes. In a sense, it was the theme song of the Civil Rights Movement. Much like blues, such songs provided a base for uniting and mobilizing people because they contained within them a language which everyone could speak and understand. Gospel music provided a space for community empowerment and an optimistic emotional outlet. It used the negative reality in which the musicians lived as a base from which to beseech the sacred for positive.
To gain a better understanding of blues, we interviewed Bill ‘Howlin’ Mad’ Perry, a contemporary blues musician from Lafayette County, Mississippi. Blues mediated an individual’s experience with his political, social, and economic environment. The emphasis was on individual accomplishment, unlike gospel, which focused on God. Blues provided an avenue for reaction to the sorrow, emotional disillusionment, and mental frustrations created by the harsh conditions of the South such as sharecropping, racism and oppression, and poverty as well as relationships between the sexes.
Unlike in South Africa, where song was sometimes used for aggressive confrontation with authority, both gospel and blues aimed more at producing hope and relief through expressing the feelings that were taboo during slavery. In essence, both are a type of liberation music, reacting to the surrounding conditions and hoping for positive social change.
(Photo Copyright © 2010, Ryan Koons)
Podcast: “Because as long as you live, you’re going to have some blues.”
Created by Atandi Anyona and Ryan Koons