Juluka
A history
Juluka: Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu
Juluka grew from the extraordinary musical partnership between Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu. Clegg was born in England in 1953 and grew up largely in southern Africa. As a teenager in Johannesburg, he became deeply interested in Zulu music and dance and learned within communities that apartheid legislation was specifically designed to keep separate from white South Africans. He later became an anthropologist as well as a musician. (Pitchfork)
The crucial point, though, is that Juluka wasn't simply Johnny Clegg incorporating some African sounds into Western music. Sipho Mchunu was his musical partner and co-founder, and the meeting of their traditions created the band's distinctive character. Their music brought Zulu styles including maskandi and mbaqanga together with Western folk and rock. (Apple Music - Web Player)
That partnership was itself radical in apartheid South Africa. A black and white musician performing together challenged the country's legally enforced racial divisions simply by appearing on the same stage. Juluka consequently encountered censorship and difficulties getting its music broadcast. (Apple Music - Web Player)
Their first album, Universal Men (1979), is particularly interesting from the perspective of what you're doing with Turner Productions. Rather than merely being a collection of songs, it explored the experience of a Zulu migrant worker caught between rural KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg, the "City of Gold", where his value to the apartheid economy was primarily his labour. (Apple Music - Web Player)
Then came African Litany in 1981 and songs such as “Impi”, which draws upon the 1879 Battle of Isandlwana and the Zulu victory over British forces. Scatterlings followed in 1982 and contained “Scatterlings of Africa”, which became one of the group's defining songs. (Apple Music - Web Player)
The inspiration for the poem happened during a concert held at the Students Union Hall of University of Natal on 28 July 1981. The concert was allowed by the repressive regimewhich allowed for that one occasion racially mixed audiences. Apart from the wonder of the music the entire experience wasexciting and liberating.
Juluka eventually ended in the mid-1980s when Mchunu returned to rural KwaZulu-Natal. Clegg subsequently formed Savuka, and his later work included “Asimbonanga”, the famous song referring to Nelson Mandela during the years when Mandela's image was suppressed under apartheid. (Pitchfork)