Music In South Africa Essay

Laurelle Charne

Music of South Africa

Veit Erlmann

May 13, 2014

Final Paper

Being born and raised in South Africa, I wanted to enroll in this Music of South Africa class to learn more about my background. I find it fascinating how music could leave such a lasting impression on a country that it actually shaped the politics and mindset of the countries people. The South African national government forced the majority black population to be removed from the society as a solution to control the black South Africans economic and political standing. The act of forced removals is called Displaced Correlation, which is when part society does not feel like they belong in their culture due to inequality of opportunity and rights. Due to the strict national government many black South Africans felt displaced from their culture. Although South Africa has made tremendous strides towards equality, the brutal control of whites ruling the country for decades has made it extremely difficult for South Africa to transform into a country equal for all races.

Music is intimately linked and reinforces South Africa’s history of deep divisions of race, class and gender. To illustrate how South Africa’s history, of the blacks fighting for freedom and justice embodies South African music, this paper will focus on two prominent musical groups who changed South Africa for the better. First to be discussed is Orpheus McAdoo, an African American singer from Virginia who successfully toured South Africa with his Virginia Jubilee singers. He became the most publicized Afro-American minstrel performer for his contributing modern harmonic concepts and structures to South African music. The other musical group who impacted South Africa, was a nine-member cappell...

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...citly made the point that a beautiful country like South Africa should not be overrun by one culture and have so much political turmoil. Through their songs, Black Mambazo suggested South Africa would have more potential if the country would try and transition from racist oppression to equal-rights and freedom for everyone. Ladysmith Black Mambazo left a lasting impact on South Africa because he showed the country that many problems, which result in a cultural divide, could be dealt with through music. Shabalala knew music was a powerful tool to address challenging social, economic and political issues so he used his magical musical and spiritual harmonies to touch a worldwide audience to help re-connect the people of South Africa.

Source Used:

Erlmann, V. (1991). African stars: studies in Black South African performance. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.