If any rock maestro was given to understatement, it was Johnny Clegg.

Embarking on his Final Journey Tour last year, when he knew he was dying, he said: “Pancreatic cancer is lethal. There is no way out of it.”

Then he resorted to his beloved Isi Zulu to use the idiomatic saying that everyone must eat what is in his bowl.

It is, therefore, left to us to say that Johnny Clegg is the biggest thing to happen to South African music in the last half century.

Born in Britain and raised in Zimbabwe – then Rhodesia – he came to Johannesburg where he met a Zulu cleaner named Charlie Mzila who spurred his interest in the music and dance of that bellicose and dominant tribe.

As a teenager he hung out in  the haunts of migrant labourers: their dangerous hostels and fiery illegal taverns known as shebeens.

It is difficult to overstate the radical, not to forget highly illegal, nature of this behavior.

Clegg was often arrested for breaching apartheid South Africa’s Group Areas Act which dictated to people where they were allowed to be. And that was strictly with people of their own race.

Clegg studied anthropology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and at the University of Natal in Durban.

Not only was he addicted to the maskandi music of the people, he was fascinated with what made them tick.

In 1969 he met Sipho Mahunu who recognized and encouraged his passion and talent. 

They were the backbone of the group Jaluka which recorded numbers like Africa Sky Blue and Great Heart.

In the eighties, Mahunu returned to his farm and Clegg took up with Savuka, continuing to write and perform hits that thrilled South Africans both black and white.

This crossover culture flew in the face of the then government’s policy of separation.

The apartheid bosses were particularly angered by Clegg’s song Asimbonanga – literally “ we have not seen him” – that dreamed of performing onstage with the still jailed Nelson Mandela.

The song names Steve Biko and other anti-apartheid fighters killed by the regime.

The authorities had a fine understanding of how far they could stretch their oppression of high-profile figures.

Johnny Clegg had become a touring star in France, where he was called Le Zulu Blanc, Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany and the Scandanavian countries.

This made him untouchable to the Pretoria heavies – just like critical Afrikaans writers of the time and  Church-sponsored educators determined to run mixed private schools.

Foreign governments took the lead from their music-fan citizens and bestowed honours on  Clegg: the Legion d’Honneur from France and Britain’s OBE.

Clegg seemed to triumph over chronology by persistently touring and leaping around the stage with microphone, guitar and township concertina.

He sang about the injustices of apartheid but the lasting value  of his songs celebrates the land and beauty of a South Africa open to everyone.

His courage and activism were above question. Like many South Africans he was disappointed at the so-called Rainbow Nation failing to live up to its promises. 

However, he  avoided the cut and thrust of the party political arena to express this.

Johnny Clegg liked to say he was taught patience by Nelson Mandela, the man he fantasised about performing with.

That dream came true when Mandela walked on stage during his concert in Frankfurt in 1999 and did his trademark jive to Asimbonaga. 

“I realize that the new South Africa cannot be perfect,” Clegg would say. “It could take as long as 40 years to flourish and become truly democratic.

“We must be patient if we want to see a flowering future.” 

Clegg’s son Jessie has followed in his father’s musical footsteps and the two have performed together many times.

The maestro says he is enormously proud of his son but insists he has not interfered in his career.

Radio stations in South Africa have been playing Clegg’s music non stop since news of his death  on Tuesday afternoon, surrounded by his family.

It is almost as though they are delaying saying goodbye to the legend.

One comfort is we will always have his music and his inspiration

Lala kahle – rest in peace – Johnny Clegg 

The post Lala kahle le Zulu blanc Johnny Clegg appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

In those heady, early days of democracy South Africa was often said to be punching above its weight diplomatically.

There was not a country that did not want to be the friend of Nelson Mandela’s success story.

Many sought help, hoping that rubbing  up against  it might bring some good fortune.

So, in addition to their considerable domestic commitments Mandela and his early successors were required to be counsellors and mediators.

They were expected to explain how they  achieved the seemingly impossible end of apartheid and the reconciliation that brought about the Rainbow Nation.

Northern Ireland is perhaps the best example of this

Many times, South African leaders were obliged to apply these lessons by actually stepping  in between parties in conflict and brokering a peace.

This applied mainly in Africa where South African mediation achieved settlements in Sudan, Comoros, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire and Lesotho.

The fact that things have lately gone pear-shaped in many of these nations is a debate for another day.

However badly things have fared, they are indubitably better off having  had South African mediation and peacekeeping at a time when the rest of the  world was either unwilling or incapable to intervening.

Thankfully, that is not the case in Sudan today.

The African Union has built the confidence and experience to make its presence felt by red-carding the Transitional Military Council until it hands power to a civilian administration.

The Arab nations are there, albeit misguidedly lending moral support to the military junta in Khartoum until the generals made the fatal error of deploying the former janjaweed against unarmed protestors.

The United States has got involved, sending Tibor Nagy its top envoy to Africa to urge an and to the violence.

It has also named Donald Booth as its special envoy to Sudan – the ninth since 2001.

Not only Washington, but Hollywood has skin in the game through activity actor George Clooney calling on the U.S. Treasury to use its muscle with international banks to dry up the financial stream to the junta in Khartoum and anyone seeking to prolong the conflict in the strategically place country bridging Africa and the Arab worlds.

Look for South Africa in this crowd and you will be disappointed.

Does this mean the days of Mzanzi mediation are over?

Probably not.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has his hands full pulling South Africa out of the economic swamp.

For him it is very much a case of charity beginning at home.

The sad reality is the wasted Zuma years of Zuma corruption has cut the moral high ground from under South Africa’s feet.

That is ironic, because Zuma himself was a good, although tough, mediator.

“Do you really think you can twist a man’s arm behind his back hard enough to  get him to sign a settlement with his free hand?” I asked him in jest after he had brought a reluctant  Pierre Nkurunziza into the Burundi deal.

“What do you think the did to us at Codesa?” he retorted.

ends

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