Mapping liberation through song: the impact of anti-apartheid popular music and protest/liberation songs in South Africa and the diaspora, 1950-1994

Abstract

This study aims to analyse the role that popular music and protest/liberation songs played in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, spanning across the era of apartheid rule from 1948 until 1994. This study discusses multiple aspects of popular music opposing apartheid, and non-commercial music as drivers for liberation. Consequently, this study will provide a multi-dimensional view of the mechanisms promoting protest songs, the artists that opposed apartheid through song, State censorship as a response to resistance, and the role of the international community. From the inception of apartheid, the liberation struggle was fought on various fronts. This study contends that the influence of liberation/protest music on the anti-apartheid struggle was a forerunner in cultural resistance, both locally and in the diaspora.