MAPPING LIBERATION THROUGH SONG: THE IMPACT OF ANTI-

APARTHEID POPULAR MUSIC AND PROTEST/LIBERATION 

SONGS IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE DIASPORA, 1950-1994 

 

 
by 

 

KEANAN CHRISTINE JAFTHA 
 

                          Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements in 

                              respect of the degree 

 

                            MA History 

 

 
 

in the 

 
FACULTY OF THE HUMANITIES 

 
(DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY) 

 
at the 

 
UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE 

BLOEMFONTEIN 

 
 

SUPERVISOR: PROF C. TWALA 

 

 
NOVEMBER 2021 



Student Declaration 

 
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements in respect of the Master’s Degree in the 

Department of History in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Free State. 

 

 
Student Signature: 



Table of Contents 
 

Page no 
 

Acknowledgments 

List of Abbreviations 

List of Figures 

1. Chapter 1: Introduction 1 

2. Chapter 2: The Rise of Politically Conscious Music in the 1950s 18 

2.1. Introduction 18 

2.2. The nature of political and liberation music in the 1950s 18 

2.3. Artists of the 1950s 23 

2.4. Conclusion 36 

3. Chapter 3: Radio Bantu, Radio Freedom and the Works of Makeba and  

Masekela in Exile in the 1960s 38 

3.1. Introduction 38 

3.2. Radio Bantu and Radio Freedom in the 1960s 39 

3.3. Artists in Exile in the 1960s 47 

3.4. Conclusion 60 

4. Chapter 4: State Censorship, Anti-Apartheid Songs and ANC Cultural  

Groups in the 1970s 63 

4.1. Introduction 63 

4.2. Censorship 65 

4.3. Anti-apartheid Music in the 1970s 78 

4.4. ANC Cultural Groups 85 

4.5. Conclusion 86 

5. Chapter 5: Voëlvry , Cultural Boycotts and the Dawn of Democracy 88 

5.1. Introduction 88 

5.2. Censorship 90 

5.3. Voëlvry 100 

5.4. Conclusion 108 

6. Chapter 6: Conclusion 110 

Discography 115 

Bibliography 119 



Acknowledgments 

 

All Glory and Honour to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, with whom none of this would 

be  possible. 

Thank you to my parents for their unwavering support and belief in my vision for this 

dissertation. Thanks too, to my grandmother for her relentless prayers and countless words of 

encouragement. 

A special thank you to Samuel for being part of this process from the beginning and for keeping 

me sane through my insomnia and anxiety. 

My supervisor and mentor, Prof Chitja Twala, thank you for your guidance and wisdom. 

Without your well of knowledge and insight, this project would not have materialised to its 

fullest potential. In collaboration with the financial resources provided by the Andrew Mellon 

Foundation, this dissertation came to fruition during a global pandemic. I am eternally grateful. 

A special mention to my siblings, Aidan, Kezia and Hector-Lee who motivated me to leave a 

legacy. 

Finally, thank you to my father A.R.K for gifting me with the love of music. Rest In Peace.  



List of Abbreviations/Acronyms 

 

 
ANC – African National Congress 

ANCWL – African National Congress Women’s League 

BCM – Black Consciousness Movement 

DIP – Department of Information and Publicity 

FEDSAW – Federation of South African Women 

FOSATU – Federation of South African Trade Unions 

FrAC – Franchise Action Council 

FRELIMO – Mozambique Liberation Front 

GHREC – General/Human Research Ethics Committee 

MK – Umkhonto we Sizwe 

MPLA – The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola 

NGK – Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk 

NP – National Party 

PAB – Publications Appeal Board 

PAC – Pan Africanist Congress 

RTD – Radio Tanzania Dar-es-Salaam 

SABC – South African Broadcasting Corporation 

SACP – South African Communist Party 

SAIC – South African Indian Congress 

SASO – South African Student’s Organization 

SWAPO – South West Africa People’s Organization 

UDF – United Democratic Front 

UN – United Nations 

UNESCO – United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 

USA – United States of America 

ZANU – Zimbabwe African National Union 

ZAPU – Zimbabwe African People’s Union 



List of Figures 

 
Figure 1.1: Dorothy Masuka, c. 1952 Photograph by Jurgen Schadeberg. 

Figure 1.2: Meadowlands lyric sheet, c. 1956 by Wrasse Records. 

Figure 2.1: Miriam Makeba during her UN General Assembly, c. 1963 Photograph by Teddy 

Chen. 

Figure 3.1: SABC lyric sheet (Tswana), c. 1971. Photograph by Stephanus Muller. 

Figure 3.2: Record kept of Roger Lucey’s Movements, c. 1979 by Paul Erasmus. 

Figure 4.1: List of Songs banned, c. June 1988 

Figure 4.2: Prohibition of the Cultural Festival “Towards a Peoples Culture: Arts Festival 

86”, c. June 1986. 

  



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.  



1 
 

CHAPTER 1 

INTRODUCTION 

1.1 Introduction 

 
The apartheid system was implemented in South Africa in 1948 under the National Party (NP) 

Government. The NP introduced a number of legislations in order to enforce the apartheid policy. 

This institutionalised racial discrimination and segregation was met with resistance from the Black 

population (the term ‘Black’ inclusive of Africans, Coloureds and Indians), as well as members of 

other population groups. Opposition to apartheid manifested in a variety of ways, including non- 

violent and violent protests, using mediums of culture like music and art to conscientise people, 

forms of mass media like radio to propagate anti-apartheid sentiments and various other methods 

of resistance. Music as a form of cultural resistance, played a large role in the movement against 

apartheid in South Africa, as well as within the international community. The impact of popular 

music and liberation/protest songs opposing apartheid was a fundamental part of the liberation 

struggle.1 This included raising awareness about the atrocities of racial segregation, creating 

international solidarity against apartheid, promoting liberation propaganda and to a certain extent 

presenting an alternative vision of culture in a future democratic South Africa. This study attempts 

to discuss such factors with reference to popular music and liberation/protest songs in South Africa 

and the diaspora between 1950 and 1994. 

 

It is important to note that the lyrical content and tone of this music reflected the atmosphere that 

it was composed in. The anti-apartheid music of the 1950s, soon after apartheid had begun, explicitly 

addressed peoples' grievances over pass laws and forced relocation. Different efforts to achieve 

liberation were employed both locally and internationally with the Defiance Campaign launched in 

1952 by the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and 

Franchise Action Council (FrAC) which specifically aimed to repeal six unjust apartheid laws. In 

1954, the women’s anti-pass campaign was launched under the leadership of the African National 

Congress Women’s League (ANCWL) and the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW) 

to peacefully protest the pass laws that required women 

 

 

 

 

1 T.R. Genovese, Get Up, Stand Up: The Role of Music as a Driver for Political Change in Apartheid South Africa. 

(Unpublished MS: School of Anthropology, The University of Arizona, 2013), pp. 4-5. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_resistance_to_apartheid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_resistance_to_apartheid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pass_laws


2 
 

to carry passes.2 The arts became an integral part in integrating the anti-apartheid message into 

everyday society. Music became an outlet for oppressed people to express their dissatisfaction 

with the racist and discriminatory government in the country. Millions of people across the 

country shared anti-apartheid sentiments and the arts became a reflection of everyday struggles 

of non-white South Africans. With the traction of international figures and artists, the anti-

apartheid movement became more overt and saw the solidarity of the international community. 

The international community became more conscientised about the struggle of black South 

Africans under the apartheid regime. With the escalation of discrimination of non- white South 

Africans under apartheid laws and restrictions, the anti-apartheid movement required a more 

aggressive approach, compared to the passive resistance in the earlier portion of the 20th 

century. Music, which is often referred to as a universal language, played an important role in 

advocating for the dismantling of the apartheid regime.3 The evolution of anti-apartheid music 

created a shared experience for oppressed peoples across the globe. As the liberation movement 

expanded beyond the borders of South Africa, so did the message of freedom. International 

artists showed their support by refusing to perform in South Africa and became allies to South 

African artists who introduced an anti-apartheid message into their music. 

1.2 Background and rationale 

 
It is argued in this study that the anti-apartheid music and protest started in the early 1950s, 

some few years after the coming into power of the NP. Music was an instrumental part in 

expressing the disdain for the apartheid system and reflected the key issues that South Africans 

were facing during a particular era.4 During the 1950s, the music reflected the condemnation 

of the Group Areas Act and Bantu Resettlement Act which forced thousands of black and 

coloured South Africans to relocate. Residents from Sophiatown were forcefully removed and 

relocated to Meadowlands and Soweto. This was an example of the escalation of the oppressive 

and discriminatory apartheid regime. Forced removals became a regular occurrence in black 

and coloured settlements across the country and sparked immense outrage from those who were 

dispossessed. Musicians of colour were not exempt from the struggles of ordinary citizens 

 

 

2 J. C. Wells, “Why Women Rebel: A Comparative Study of South African Women’s Resistance in Bloemfontein 

(1913) and Johannesburg (1958)”. Journal of Southern African Studies, 10(1), 1983, p. 58. 
3 G. Olwage, “Apartheid’s Musical Signs: Reflections on Black Choralism, Modernity and Race-Ethnicity in the 

Segregation Era”, in Composing Apartheid: Music For and Against Apartheid, 2008, p. 36. 
4 L. Allen, “Commerce, Politics, and Musical Hybridity: Vocalizing Urban Black South African Identity during 

the 1950s”, Ethnomusicology, 47(2), 2003, p. 234. 



3 
 

and used their platforms to promote the dismantling of the apartheid system and to highlight 

the sentiments of millions of South Africans who suffered under the racist regime in the 

country. For example, in 1956, Strike Vilakazi wrote a song called “Meadowlands” to illustrate 

the heartache that residents felt, being forcefully removed from Sophiatown. The song was 

largely popularised and covered by several South African artists like Nancy Jacobs and Her 

Sisters and Dolly Rathebe. Although the song did not directly speak to the political situation in 

the country during the time, it carried a nuanced message where “audiences were left with the 

challenge of deciphering its deeper meanings”.5 Although it was a wildly jazz and upbeat song, 

it resonated with many black and coloured South Africans who were forcefully removed  and 

received a lot of commercial success. Songs, like the compositions of Vuyisile Mini which were 

not commercially successful, were equally influential in contributing to the resistance to 

apartheid. The diversification of the music industry in the 1950s provided a space for a plethora 

of artists to use their platform to promote liberation, both commercially and noncommercially.6 

Following the Sharpeville Massacre in March 1960, anti-apartheid music intensified as the 

liberation movement took on a more militarised approach. This was followed by the massive 

arrests and later exile of various political leaders, as well as musicians who publicly supported 

the liberation movement. The political turmoil surrounding the violence of the Sharpeville 

Massacre and the protests that followed, engulfed the country in a state disillusionment and 

fear. Anti-apartheid music became more downbeat and the lyrical content sombre, while 

increasing harassment and censorship by the government forced artists to use subtle and 

‘hidden meanings’ in their lyrics. The media coverage of the Sharpeville Massacre drew the 

attention of the international community to the ills of apartheid. Mediums of spreading anti- 

apartheid messages became just as important as liberation songs in the 1960s. The 

establishment of Radio Bantu and Radio Freedom in the 1960s changed the dynamics of 

mechanisms of propaganda. Songs like Thina Sizwe and Senzeni na were popularised by 

freedom fighters and black anti-apartheid activists following the Sharpeville Massacre to 

highlight the country’s mournful sentiments about the lives lost. 

Liberation music and protest music and protests also allowed people to circumvent the more 

stringent restrictions on other forms of expression. Sometimes the militant nature of this music 

played a significant role in advancing a more militant role of resistance inside and outside the 

country. 

 
 

5 A. le-Roux-Kemp. “Struggle Music: South African Politics in Song”. Law and Humanities, 8 (2), 2014, p. 253. 
6 V. Msila, “Reliving South African Apartheid History in a Classroom: Using Vuyisile Mini’s Protest Song’s”, 

Creative Education, 4(12B), 2013, p. 52.



4 
 

The mid-1970s with the Soweto uprising, anti-apartheid music was taken into greater heights with 

songs such as Soweto Blues written by Hugh Masekela and performed by Miriam Makeba 

encouraging a more direct challenge to the apartheid government. Similarly, in 1974, Abdullah 

Ibrahim wrote Mannenberg, a song titled after the Cape Flats settlement of Mannenberg, where 

coloureds who were forcefully removed were resettled against their will. Often communities 

forcefully removed from their homes were relocated in overcrowded and crime ridden slums. 

During this era, the music reflected the feelings of despair and sadness, but also reflected the 

readiness for violent revolt for systemic change. As political violence and resistance campaigns 

escalated, the State responded with more forceful censorship laws. The aim was to further suppress 

liberation material in the country. The banning of materials  that were deemed radical and anti-state 

became more prominent.7 

The study contends that throughout the apartheid period in South Africa, the ANC used different 

methods of resistance to challenge the apartheid regime. Anti-apartheid music became one of the 

political ‘weapons’ in doing so. Conversely, the apartheid regime was also destined in crushing 

all oppositions. On one hand inside the country, the regime tried with limited success to embark 

on mass arrest of artists who promoted the anti-apartheid music. On the other hand, the musicians 

sympathetic to the ANC, Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), the United Democratic Front (UDF) 

and other political organizations’ anti-apartheid course continued with the anti-apartheid music 

outside the borders of the country. This strategy, allowed banned organizations to denounce 

apartheid at an international level, hence, it received global solidarity. 

Anti-apartheid music within South Africa faced significant censorship from the apartheid regime, 

both directly and via the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). Michael Drewett 

notes: 

Many musicians opposed this system through their music and support of 

antiapartheid political cause. In response, the Nationalist government attempted 

to minimize the impact of musicians by preventing controversial music from being 

heard and by repressing the musicians themselves. Notwithstanding the 

government's attempt to maintain its hegemony, musicians fought back in a 

multitude of ways.8 

As mentioned above, musicians opposing the government faced threats, harassment, and arrests. 

Musicians from other countries also participated in the resistance to apartheid, both by releasing 

music critical of the South African government, and by participating in a cultural boycott of South 

 
7 C. Hamm, “’The Constant Companion of Man’: Separate Development, Radio Bantu, And Music”, Popular 

Music, 10(2), May 1991, p. 153. 
8 M. Drewett, “Music in the struggle to end apartheid: South Africa”, Policy Pop, 2003, p. 153. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_uprising
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_Blues
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_Broadcasting_Corporation


5 
 

Africa. Examples included the song Biko by Peter Gabriel, Sun City by Artists United Against 

Apartheid and a concert in honor of Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday in 1988 in Wembley, 

England. Prominent South African musicians such as Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, forced 

into exile, also released music critical of apartheid, and this music had a significant impact on 

Western popular culture, contributing to the moral outrage over apartheid. 

The above explanation was an indication that local artists in exile during the 1960s, 1970’s and 

1980’s interacted and collaborated with international artists and became crucial in spreading the 

anti-apartheid message beyond the South African borders. This was instrumental in amassing 

support and pressuring the government into dismantling the apartheid regime. The consequences 

of international solidarity to end discrimination in South Africa had both economic and socio- 

political implications for the country, particularly with disinvestments and sanctions against the 

apartheid government by international bodies and corporations.  

The collaboration between local and international artists promoting an anti-apartheid message 

turned the liberation movement in South Africa into a global movement which could no longer 

be ignored by the international community. Similarly, struggle songs that depicted the feelings of 

oppression and often violent events that took place in the country were sung in the ANC as well 

as in the PAC military camps. Therefore, exile became safe havens in southern Africa and spread 

across the continent and into other parts of the world, again reinforcing support for liberation 

activists who entered these military training camps to combat the apartheid government on all 

fronts.9  

Peaceful and passive resistance were no longer sufficient to meet the demands of the oppressed 

and therefore these training camps, which were banned in South Africa, were necessary to arm 

and equip those on the front lines. The interaction between South African and southern African 

liberation movements in these training camps, where experiences in exile were shared, promoted 

the sentiments of Pan-Africanism, the plight for the end of imperialist regimes and the suffering 

of black people through songs and anthems that supported the message of liberation. 

 

The post-1976 period elicited resistance from artists all over the world. Artists like Bob Marley 

and the Wailers used their platform to voice their anger and outrage at the events that took place 

in Southern Africa and liberation movements of oppressed people across the globe, and the 

domino effect that it had on the student movement across the country and in the diaspora. In 1976, 

Bob Marley and the Wailers sampled the speech that His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie 1 of 

Ethiopia made before the United Nations General Assembly 1963. The song entitled War 

 

 

9 S. R. Davis, “The African National Congress, Its Radio, Its Allies and Exile”, Journal of Southern African 

Studies, 35(2), June 2009, p. 351

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Gabriel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_City_(song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artists_United_Against_Apartheid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artists_United_Against_Apartheid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela_70th_Birthday_Tribute
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Makeba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Masekela


6 
 

stated that “…and until the ignoble and unhappy regimes, that hold our brothers in Angola, in 

Mozambique, South Africa, sub-human bondage, have been toppled, utterly destroyed…well, everywhere is 

war…me say war”.10 

 

Encouraging the end to imperialist regimes, while simultaneously encouraging oppressed 

Africans to arm themselves and fight for freedom, War became a Pan-Africanist anthem for 

oppressed peoples on the African continent and a warning to racist regimes at the prospect of war 

for liberation. 

 

The famous Soweto Blues written and performed by Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba was 

released in 1977 and became a staple in reflecting on the events of 1976. Soweto Blues highlighted 

many of the complexities that contributed to the Soweto Uprising and the consequences thereof. 

The song begins with recounting the issuing of the removal of Sotho, Xhosa and Zulu (among 

other vernacular languages) from the school curriculum. As the song progresses and the tempo 

intensifies, so does the account of the events that took place in 1976. Soweto Blues accounts for 

the multi-layered socio-political and economic factors that played a part in the youth uprising. It 

addresses the absence of men in the townships who were often laboring in the inner cities where 

non-whites were not permitted to live, far from their homes and families in informal settlements 

and locations. It then addresses the violence that erupted in Orlando when police opened fire on 

school children who were peacefully protesting an oppressive schooling system, forcing them to 

receive their education in Afrikaans. It also poses the question  to the listener Benikhupi na?, which 

translates to “Where were you”? This can be interpreted as a critique to South Africans who were 

complicit in promoting the violent and oppressive apartheid  regime, and those who stood by and 

did nothing about the atrocities of the violent killing of children.  

 

Other artists, such as Juluka Band, comprised of Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu used the socio-

political climate in the 1970s performing together as an interracial duo (Clegg being white and 

English Mchunu being a black and Zulu man). The duo, who’s multi-racial band later expanded, 

performed in both Zulu and English. Clegg later split from the group and later founded the group  

Savuka which continued the same genre and message through their music as his earlier group.11 

With the rising violence and unrest from the mid-1970, the apartheid regime responded by 

implementing the Total Onslaught Strategy. This aimed at suppressing uprisings and boycotts in 

 

10 Bob Marley and The Wailers song entitled War on the album Rastaman Vibrations, 1976. 
11 Johnny Clegg. Juluka Iyajuluka: Interview with Johnny Clegg in 1983. 

https://jstor.org/stable/10.2307/al.sff.document.int19830000.038.362.1101, 2.06. 2020. 

https://jstor.org/stable/10.2307/al.sff.document.int19830000.038.362.1101,


7 
 

townships and minimising resistance. Musicians who overtly opposed the apartheid regime found 

were subject to censorship and intimidation by the police. Artists like Clegg and Mchunu, 

formally known as Juluka Band, were often subject to police raids and disturbances at their 

performances. It became increasingly challenging for artists who overtly produced and performed 

music with an anti- apartheid message to perform publicly and release music without the risk of 

censorship or scrutiny by the South African Police. As a result, many artists like Jonas Gwangwa, 

Makeba and others chose to go into exile to escape the intimidation and prosecution they received 

for promoting anti-apartheid  sentiments in their music. In the latter period of the 1970s, the 

apartheid government instituted various mechanisms of censorship. In 1976, the Publications Act 

was implemented. The Publications Act was a vital instrument for direct censorship, including 

sound recordings. This Act led to the Directorate of Publications and the establishment of the 

Publications Appeal Board (PAB), which was government appointed.12 This made it even more 

difficult for musicians who condemned apartheid to do so through their music. 

With many liberation leaders either imprisoned or in exile following the political violence in the 

1960s and 1970s, the ruling party aimed to crumble the liberation movements further by banning 

the political organizations under the Internal Security Act of 1982.13 The several State of 

Emergencies declared in the 1980s further enforced the police state in South Africa. The 1980s 

saw a trend of releasing songs collectively performed by a multitude of musicians in aid of 

humanitarian causes. For example, USA for Africa's We Are the World aimed at raising money 

for, and awareness of, famine relief in Africa. In 1986 the apartheid regime decided to exploit this 

trend. A propaganda song entitled Together We'll Build a Brighter Future involved a cross-section 

of South African musicians promoting peace and multiracial harmony in South Africa, despite 

ongoing police brutality and the erosion of freedom which came with the state of emergency. The 

apartheid regime offered musicians large sums of money to participate, but, in an instance of left- 

wing censorship, most top musicians refused. The severity of the cultural struggle was 

emphasised when arsonists burned down the house of Steve Kekana, who participated in the 

recording, as he was perceived as a sell-out.14 

In 1986, the emergency regulations ‘made it an offence for any person to make, write, record, 

disseminate, display, utter or even pass(es) a ‘subversive statement’.15 The State of Emergencies 

and the emergency regulations allowed the state to ban materials independent of the PAB, which 

 

12 M. Drewett, “Music in the struggle to end apartheid: South Africa”, p. 154. 
13 Ibid. 
14 Ibid., p. 160. 
15 Ibid. 



8 
 

rarely banned music. During the 1980s and 1990s, with a country on the brink of civil war, 

liberation music became a multi-cultural outlet in the plight for an end to political violence, for 

social justice and equal and fair elections. Afrikaans groups established the Voëlvry music 

movement. The goal of Voëlvry was to criticize and challenge the apartheid government using 

Afrikaans music that satirised the political and social climate in the country. Liberation/protest 

music became a collaborative movement locally and internationally against apartheid. 

1.3 Research problem 

 
Solidarity against the apartheid regime in South Africa echoed across the globe. Various 

European, African and Western Countries entered the fray in attempts to side with South Africa’s 

liberation movements. For example, liberation movements of African peoples across the world 

particularly those in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s; the independence of High Commission 

Authorities who were Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland, and Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) all 

contributed to the pressures to dismantle the apartheid regime in South Africa. The Pan-African 

Movement linked diasporic clusters that were experiencing similar segregation and oppression. 

In the USA, those who were fighting for equality in their own country, simultaneously advocated 

for the end to systemic racial discrimination in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Similarly, 

on the African continent, many countries were fighting for independence from colonial rule while 

simultaneously advocating for democracy in South Africa. 

The arts have played an important role in South African history and equally played an important 

role in the contestation of racial, gender and socio-economic inequalities in the country. Protest 

art has been fundamental in reflecting the struggles of the day and the feelings of the people during 

a particular period. Social and political protests took form in different genres. In mass of literature 

pertaining to the apartheid era in South Africa, there are few studies done on the impact of anti-

apartheid music spanning across the liberation movement in the country, and how that translated 

into international solidarity as well. The study attempts to investigate how anti- apartheid music 

was used as a ‘weapon’ to challenge the ills of the apartheid regime during the period under 

discussion. 

In anticipation to address the above, the following questions constitute the core focus of the role 

anti-apartheid music and musicians played in this regard: 

a) What was the nature of protest songs at the inception of apartheid, and how did they evolve 

with the liberation movement from 1950-1994? 



9 
 

b) How can this study consolidate a fragmented account of liberation music during the 

apartheid era, and pay attention to the evolution of anti-apartheid music as the liberation 

movement intensified? 

c) To what extent did the role of music that promoted an anti-apartheid message spread 

across the globe and create international solidarity against apartheid? 

d) What were the mechanisms used to promote liberation/protest music? 

e) Who were the popular music composers, locally and internationally, who participated in 

the anti-apartheid music movement? 

f) What was the role of less popular musicians and liberation songs in the promotion of 

protest music? 

g) How did the apartheid government and apartheid sympathisers respond to protest music 

that called for an end to systematic discrimination? 

1.4 Aims and objectives 

 
The primary aim of this research project is to conduct an in-depth study that holistically approaches 

the    extent to which anti-apartheid music formed part of the anti-apartheid movement. Furthermore, 

the study aims at addressing both the literary and academic gaps that alludes how music as protest 

action affected anti-apartheid musicians inside South Africa and those in the diaspora. Based on 

the above, the study strives to highlight how music played an essential role in creating international 

solidarity against the apartheid regime, and how local and international artists used it to convey 

the message of liberation. 

Furthermore, the study aims to consolidate a comprehensive narrative that spans over four decades 

of ethnomusicology in South Africa during the apartheid era. Thus, investigating the role and 

influence of protest/liberation songs becomes important in understanding the whole question of 

the country’s liberation struggle. In this study, the researcher attempts to map how music that 

spread the anti-apartheid message evolved as the violence and resistance to oppression intensified. 

This study also attempts to give a holistic view of how music contributed to protest action during 

the apartheid era. 

Additionally, the study analyses key contributors within the liberation struggle that used music as 

a means of mirroring the feelings of those oppressed by the apartheid regime, as well as how that 

message was received and responded to. The role of music to strengthen international solidarity 

with artists abroad supporting local artists, collaborating and creating music that held a strong 

message demanding the dismantling of the apartheid system is also evaluated to unpack 



10 
 

the reach that anti-apartheid driven music had. Due to the limited and often fragmented sources 

dedicated to the impact of anti-apartheid music, the study fills some of the historical and literary gaps 

and provide a contribution to the liberation studies historiography. 

1.5 Research design and methodology 

 
This study’s point of departure is that there exists little academic documentation from historians on 

the role of anti-apartheid music throughout the liberation movement, that are consolidated in a 

single study. Michael Drewett in Music in the Struggle to End Apartheid: South Africa16 provides 

insight into the height of state censorship in the 1970s, and the mechanisms to suppress liberation 

songs. Drewett’s section entitled Mechanisms of Music Censorship compartmentalises various 

modes of censorship, including state-imposed legislation, the SABC regulations and self-

censorship. These elements are analysed to show state response to liberation songs and anti-

apartheid popular music, as well as the harassment and abuse those artists who produced liberation 

music faced. 

 

For the basis of this study, qualitative research methodology is employed. This study is literature 

based (desktop study) and will therefore not make use of human subjects/participants  for interviews. 

Literary sources will be sufficient when collecting and analysing non-numerical  data. Using archival 

sources and other secondary sources, such as books, book chapters, and published peer reviewed 

journal articles, this study will map the influence that music had on the anti-apartheid campaign, 

both in South Africa and the diaspora. The National Archives were consulted to gather archival 

material for this study. The use of national government records will be essential in understanding 

both ends of the pro-apartheid and anti-apartheid sentiments, including Annual Reports from the 

SABC. Furthermore, this study makes use of the compositions of artists, such as Vuyisile Mini, 

Miriam Makeba, Dorothy Masuka and Harry  Belafonte who were at the forefront of the liberation 

movement, as well as artists who chose anonymity and remained in the background, to evaluate the 

evolution of liberation songs and popular music in opposing apartheid. 

The use of national government records was essential in understanding both ends of pro-apartheid 

and anti-apartheid sentiments. As the anti-apartheid movement progressed, the government’s 

policies of containment and suppression escalated. In 1982, the Internal Security and Protection 

Information Acts were implemented. Government records as part and parcel of archival material 

 

 

16 Drewett, p. 153. 



11 
 

proved to be important in highlighting what this entailed for censorship, and how that impacted on 

musicians and music as a medium of protest action. Archival materials were also instrumental in 

analysing government mandates to the SABC and other broadcasting platforms that prohibited the 

broadcasting the works of certain musicians or artists. Despite debates surrounding the reliability 

of the colonial or post-colonial archive, this study believes that it would be useful in giving a 

holistic perspective on how both sides of the apartheid spectrum responded and were influenced 

by anti-apartheid music. 

Aside from exploring the sphere of music as protest action, this study inclusively looks at 

landmarking events between the 1950 and 1994 that were mapped through a musical experience.       

For this reason, several books, articles, and journals that address periodically significant events will 

be used for background purposes and context. This study remains a historiographic research project 

and thus properly contextualises events during the four active decades of the apartheid and 

apartheid movements in South Africa and uses a variety of sources to contextualise the 

complexities of the apartheid era such as Apartheid: The History of Apartheid: Race vs Reason – 

South Africa 1948-1994 by Michael Morris.17 

This study will be mapping the impact that music had on the anti-apartheid movement in South 

Africa. As such, Composing Apartheid edited by Grant Olwage is one of the few sources and the 

first of its kind that maps the entirety of the musical experience during the liberation struggle. This 

book contains a collection of essays that are about music for and against the apartheid system. It 

will be useful in forming a comparative study for this research project. Journal articles such as In 

Township Tonight by David Coplan,18 Singing Against Apartheid by Shirley Gilbert19 and Music 

in the Struggle to End Apartheid by Drewett were used to consolidate and strengthen a 

comprehensive study on this era in music. 

Being that this study is on music as a form of protest art, music produced and released during this 

era will be used for data collections. Any form of audio recordings, visual recordings and lyrical 

content will be used to give an honest analysis of the era of anti-apartheid music. The musical 

historiography of artists and their body of work will also be used in analysing the extent to which 

they used their influence to spread the anti-apartheid message. Being that this study is a desktop 

 

 

 

17 M. Morris, Apartheid: The History of Apartheid: Race vs Reason – South Africa 1948-1994, 2012. 
18 D. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre, 2007. 
19 S. Gilbert, “Singing Against Apartheid: ANC Cultural Groups and the International Anti-Apartheid Struggle”, 

Journal of Southern African Studies, 33(2), June 2007. 



12 
 

study and due to the current global pandemic and safety precautions, no interviews will be 

conducted as a means to collect data. 

1.6 Literature Review 

 

This study argues that there is little academically documented from historians of the role of the 

anti-apartheid music in the liberation course of South Africa. As mentioned before, it attempts to 

dissect how musicians used their platform to challenge the apartheid regime and its apartheid 

policy intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. The issue of anti-apartheid music has been a 

focus of some scholars in attempts to understand the impact this had on the broader historiography 

of the liberation struggle. However, very little attempt has been made to interrogate tttthe value of 

anti-apartheid popular music and protest/liberation songs during the diasporic years of the 

liberation struggle, and the impact thereof locally. Without doubt, one agrees that protest culture 

and symbolism as exposed by anti-apartheid music became an integral part of protest action during 

the apartheid era. 

Both locally and internationally, artists used their platforms to condemn the atrocities under the 

apartheid regime, showed solidarity for the plight of liberation and made bold statements that 

publicly challenged the racist government. For example, in exile the ANC introduced a number of 

initiatives such as the establishment of the Mayibuye Cultural Ensemble and the Amandla Cultural 

Ensemble and these became a hub for musicians, poets and storytellers to narrate life under the 

apartheid system. Mayibuye travelled across Europe spreading the anti-apartheid message. The 

Amandla Cultural Ensemble operated mainly in Africa, and it is often credited with its origins in 

the World Black Festival of Arts and Culture held in Nigeria in 1977.20 In order to curtail the 

influence and spread of the anti-apartheid music, the NP’s Total Onslaught policy included 

amongst others, attempts to suppress the anti-apartheid movement by declaring a series of state of 

emergencies and employing various censorship mechanisms to silence the ANC. 

The works of Shirley Gilbert in Singing Against Apartheid: ANC Cultural Groups and the 

International Anti-Apartheid Struggle is useful in analysing how resistance campaigns by political 

parties in exile were used to encourage artistic expression and to promote an anti-apartheid 

message abroad. The Amandla Cultural Ensemble, which was compiled of ANC and Umkhonto 

we Sizwe (MK) youths studying abroad and in Angola, participated in the 1978 International 

Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, Cuba.21 The Amandla group became instrumental as a 

 

20 Gilbert, p. 422. 
21 Ibid. 



13 
 

permanent affiliate of the ANC’s four pillar strategy, specifically in mobilising international 

solidarity against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The group travelled and participated in 

events across the continent and elsewhere in the world. The contact the group made with foreigners 

and the message it promoted through its catalogue, informed and conscientized those who did not 

know about apartheid in South Africa and illuminated the systemic discrimination it inflicted on 

non-whites in the country. Similarly, the Mayibuye Cultural Ensemble traveling and performing 

in Europe incorporated current events from South Africa and integrated struggle songs,  often in 

other languages like Afrikaans when in Amsterdam or translating vernacular struggle songs when 

in England, to actively spread the anti-apartheid message. 

It is evident through Gilbert’s work that resistance activity in exile was a vital part of making the 

international community aware of the atrocities of the apartheid regime in South Africa. Mayibuye 

was often known for making references to Dutch traders, businessmen and politicians who were 

known supporters of the apartheid regime.22 Thus, singing the words of Breyten Breytenbach in 

Afrikaans to publicly call out Dutch apartheid apologists. This sparked awareness amongst 

audiences and prompted collaborations with other liberation groups including ZAPU (Zimbabwe), 

MPLA (Angola) and FRELIMO (Mozambique).23 These groups were key players in not just 

raising awareness and strengthening anti-apartheid allies abroad, they often contributed financially 

to the ANC’s political activities. The work of activists in exile, particularly in the artistic sphere, 

ensured that the liberation message remained relevant and relatable. These efforts proved just as 

important as the work of popular musicians locally and internationally who used their platform to 

help dismantle the apartheid regime. 

In The Township Tonight! South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre, David Coplan dedicated 

a chapter entitled Sophiatown: culture and community, 1940-1960 to highlight what was known as 

the ‘Sophiatown Renaissance’. In this chapter, Coplan compared it to the Harlem Renaissance of 

the 1920s, which explored the creolization and culture, music, art and literature that erupted from 

one of South Africa’s most beloved township.24 Sophiatown had a distinct connection between 

political issues and popular music. During the era of African Jazz and she-been  queens in the 1950s, 

Sophiatown housed a new class of black female performers that broke the mould and challenged 

the apartheid regime’s stereotypes of what black women should be. These stereotypes promoted 

the idea of black women in urban spaces, who were largely constrained by the socio-political 

 
 

22 Ibid. 
23 Ibid, p. 429. 
24 D. Coplan, “In Township Tonight! South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre”, pp. 171-172.



14 
 

factors mitigating their presence in the urban environment. They were viewed as subservient and 

having less agency to that of their black male counterparts. Black women in townships were often 

resigned to concepts of “cultural respectability”, which was often the presumed role of women in 

rural spaces.25 Many of the female musicians from Sophiatown promoted a sense of black pride and 

defied European standards of beauty and artistry. Furthermore, they promoted and created music that 

included political rhetoric and multi-vocal lyrics that could be denied if challenged by censorship 

regulations.26 

Coplan’s nuanced telling of these songbirds that defied normative models of gender roles and    

artistry begs the inquisition that many similar groups/individuals used music as a form of protest art 

in unconventional ways. These musicians found innovative ways to transform their  lyrics and use 

mainstream sounds to carry across the message of liberation. These idiosyncratic          individual groups 

managed to, whether overtly or covertly, challenge the apartheid regime in ways that were non-

conformist to that of major political parties and individuals. This disrupts the image of a linear 

resistance campaign. In doing so, without disregarding the influence of major political parties and 

musicians that were associated with them during the anti-apartheid       movement, this study aims to 

give attention to the pockets of individuals/groups that contributed to the liberation struggle through 

music outside the sphere of popular music, musicians, or political parties. 

Drewett provides important insight on how the apartheid regime responded to the growing anti- 

apartheid movement, especially through music. He illuminates steps the regime took to ensure the 

censorship and control over the music industry during the apartheid era. When coupled with   Coplan’s 

work, one can see that musicians found loopholes in their music to evade censorship.  An example of 

how musicians evaded scrutiny and censorship from apartheid suppression were the female 

musicians of Sophiatown who used multi-vocality in their lyrics to remain ambiguous to the 

political rhetoric in their songs. Drewett’s work is thus essential in this study to provide both 

perspectives of the liberation struggle when concerning music in protest, as well as being used as a 

measuring tool to establish how artists responded to censorship when proposing political rhetoric 

in their music. Additionally, his work will be used in evaluating who the government specifically 

targeted with the intent of silencing. 

 

 

 

 
25 Ibid, 174. 
26 Ibid. 



15 
 

Amongst others, the works of scholars, such as Lara Allen and Sekibakiba Lekgoathi27 are used 

to prompt an inquiry in this study on the fragmented history of anti-apartheid liberation songs 

and literary gaps in documented works. Neo Lekgotla Laga Ramoupi is a foremost scholar 

about liberation music and cultural resistance on Robben Island, inspired by Sobukwean 

ideology and PAC contributions to the liberation movement.28 The intention of this study is to 

broaden the scope of liberation songs in South Africa, by not confining liberation/protest music 

to a particular space or affiliation. This study intends to, like Ramoupi and other scholars, 

evaluate the impact of liberation music as a form of cultural resistance. In order to cover some 

of the literary gaps, it offers a bridge between the evolving decades of the anti-apartheid 

liberation movement, and evaluate the multi-dimensionality of liberation music as cultural 

resistance. For each decade under the apartheid government, it provides insight into the various 

mechanisms, artists and responses encompassed in liberation/protest songs. Furthermore, it 

looks at both popular and commercial music spreading the anti-apartheid messages, the less 

commercial artists and the struggle songs that were equally impactful. 

The above-mentioned collections of work form the foundation of this study. The works of 

Coplan, Ramoupi and Drewett are essential in establishing the gaps in the literature and on  how 

to consolidate them in one cohesive project. The work of these scholars highlights the multi-

dimensionality of music as a protest tool during the apartheid regime. These pieces of literature 

on music spreading an anti-apartheid message provide a timeline across the four decades since 

the inception of the apartheid system and map the movement, albeit separately. Through the 

above, the historiography of the evolution of trends in the liberation struggle are addressed and 

mapped parallel to the influence of cultural protest through music. 

1.7 Value of the study 

 
In this study, the researcher acknowledges that aspects of liberation studies were conducted by 

many scholars. Thus, this study relies on some published and unpublished works. However, 

 

27 L. Allen, “Commerce, Politics, and Musical Hybridity: Vocalizing Urban Black South African Identity during 

the 1950s”, Ethnomusicology, 47(2), 2003, p. 234; L. Allen, “Kwela’s White Audiences: The Politics of Pleasure 

and Identification in the Early Apartheid Period”, in G. Olwage (ed), Composing Apartheid: Music For and 

Against Apartheid, p. 80; S.P. Lekgoathi, “You are listening to Radio Lebowa of the South African Broadcasting 

Corporation: Vernacular Radio, Bantustan Identity and Listenership”, 1960-1994, Journal of Southern African 

Studies, 35(3), 2009, pp. 575-594; S.P. Lekgoathi, “The African National Congress’s Radio Freedom and its 

audiences in South Africa, 1963-1991, Journal of African Media Studies, 2(2), 2010, p. 139. 
28 N.L L Ramoupi, “Cultural Resistance on Robben Island: Songs of Struggle and Liberation in Southern Africa”, 

in W. Worger, C. Ambler & N. Achebe (eds) A Companion to African History, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2019, p. 

462. 



16 
 

little has been documented on the role of anti-apartheid music holistically across all four 

decades of the apartheid era. Therefore, it is within this context that this study is undertaken. 

The study will show that there are various factors justifying the relevance and importance of 

this study, particularly of interrogating this topic from within the broader historiography of the 

liberation struggle. The factors for and against the use of anti-apartheid music as ‘weapons’ for 

liberation will be thoroughly analysed. The role played by anti-apartheid musicians, 

particularly from the ANC’s circles in South Africa and globally, is somewhat a ‘neglected’ 

terrain. Therefore, it is envisaged that this study will stimulate academic debate on the historical 

value of the anti-apartheid music as promoted locally and internationally. 

This study discusses multiple aspects of popular music opposing apartheid, and non- 

commercial music as drivers for liberation. Consequently, it provides 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. 

1.8 Ethical considerations 

 
As mentioned before, the study does not make use of humans as subjects to gain information 

via interviews as justification for any ethical clearance. As a desktop study, the work of various 

scholars is acknowledged throughout. The researcher understands that the sources used contain 

their own biases and takes cognisance to remain objective and not misinterpret the intention of 

the said sources. Ultimately, the research will be underpinned by the guidelines and objectives 

stipulated by the General/Human Research Ethics Committee (GHREC). Plagiarism is guarded 

against, and the Chicago method of referencing is used, providing both in-text references and 

a source list. 

1.9 Limitations of the study 

 
Due to the outbreak of Covid-19 as a global pandemic, academic institutions were not 

categorized as essential services/organizations and therefore shut down. Access to literature, 

particularly books, archival material and journals that contain information from the time period 

in question were thus inaccessible. Due to this, I had limited the number of resources at this 

study’s disposal and have slowed down the research process on this study. Internet sources 

have been useful but have had a limited reach, specifically to books and other sources protected 

by copyright laws to protect the intellectual property of authors. The hope for this study is that 

once the travel bans and closing of higher learning institutions and National Archive 



17 
 

repositories are reopened, there will be no limitations of the amount of research materials at 

this study’s disposal. 

1.10 Conclusion 

 

This chapter has laid out the foundation on which this study will be built. The background and 

rationale provided an outline for the period under discussion and highlighted some of the key 

elements of liberation/protest music, and its evolution during the apartheid era. As mentioned 

in the aims and objectives, the research study’s points of departure and an analysis of the 

contributors and influences of liberation/protest songs were outlined and discussed. Finally, 

this chapter discussed the value of this study as a holistic research project, as well as the 

limitations found whilst conducting a research project during the Covid-19 global pandemic. 

The structure and aim of this study were thus laid out throughout. 



18 
 

CHAPTER TWO: 

THE RISE OF POLITICALLY CONSCIOUS MUSIC IN THE 1950s 

 
2.1. Introduction 

The election of the National Party (NP) government by white voters in 1948 marked the 

beginning of an era of forceful and decisive legislation, focused on preserving white supremacy 

and ensuring that Black/African citizens were precluded of the same rights and privileges that 

their white counterparts relished. With the legalisation of apartheid and the first wave of early 

apartheid legislation in the 1950s beginning with the Population Registration Act of 1950 and 

the Group Areas Act of 1950, it was clear from the official sanctioning of racial classification 

and the relocation to zones based on race, that no one would be exempt from racial segregation, 

regardless of class or stature.1 The liberation struggle therefore belonged to  all South African 

citizens who experienced racism and socio-economic inequality. Thus, mainstream political 

dynamics in the 1950s produced the climate for the introduction of political rhetoric into song, 

particularly anti-apartheid rhetoric, by one means or another. 

2.2. The nature of political and liberation music in the 1950s 

 

According to HC Groenewald and S Makopo, the history of political song is not exactly 

conterminous with the history of Black political movements.2 Therefore, political song and 

historical black political movements such as, the ANC’s liberation movement are not 

necessarily coextensive, but the former is reliant on the latter for context, on which the medium 

thrives. Political song/music is largely dependent on political movements like the liberation 

struggle against apartheid and the anti-apartheid discourse for this medium of music to succeed. 

Political song can thus not thrive without being directly linked to the context of a particular 

political movement. Although black political consciousness was prevalent in South Africa long 

before the 1950s, the ANC formalised political consciousness through the medium of liberation 

songs. The use of liberation music intensified with the entrenchment of the apartheid  regime and 

so too the political force of subversive music evolved. The new-found defiant assertiveness of 

the liberation movement prompted a transition from oral tradition and song that reflected 

circumstances and history; to songs that were intensely embedded in the political context. This 

 

 

1T.R. Genovese, Get Up, Stand Up: The Role of Music as a Driver for Political Change in Apartheid South Africa. 

(Unpublished MS: School of Anthropology, The University of Arizona, 2013), pp. 4-5. 
2 H.C. Groenewald & S. Makopo, “The Political Song: Tradition and Innovation for Liberation”, in E. Sienaert, 

M. Lewis & N. Bell (eds), Oral tradition and Innovation: New Wine in Old Bottles?, 1991, p. 78. 



19 
 

was primarily a direct result of the rise of the apartheid regime in the 1950s. The  formalisation 

of its segregationist policies by the NP regime prompted social and political resistance, creating 

a shared desire for equality nationally and internationally, which was often enunciated through 

political songs. As a result, the 1950s era produced a new genre of subversive music, which 

was used as a tool to transmit political rhetoric and engage in anti- apartheid discourse. 

The anti-apartheid fight took place on all fronts and in all spheres of South African society. 

The participation and mobilisation of all domains in the South African society were necessary 

to dismantle the segregationist regime that aimed to divide black and white citizens socially, 

politically, and economically. The arts became integral in combatting the racist regime. Oral 

traditions had always played a vital role in African social history, being essential in translating 

shared experiences when literacy and printed press were inaccessible to most of the population. 

As noted by JC Scott: “Oral traditions, due simply to their means of transmission, offer a kind 

of seclusion, control, and even anonymity that make them ideal vehicles for cultural resistance.”3 

Song and poetry were interwoven in the transferal of oral traditions. Music that reflected the 

circumstances of black Africans was not absent prior to the apartheid era. Just as South Africans 

participated in protest action against racist policies prior to the 1950s, songs that carried their 

message of distress over racial segregation, the disenfranchisement of Africans and economic 

disparity was an important part of the plight for equality. For example, during the early era of 

anti-pass campaigns in the Orange River Free State, in 1913 women marched against the law 

that forced them to carry urban residential passes, offered themselves up for arrest and burned 

their passes in the presence of authorities while chanting and singing phrases like “Votes for 

Women!.”4 Phrases of this nature were often sung at gatherings and used as tools to vocalise 

the singers’ grievances and pleas to authorities, putting demands for equality into a collective 

message through song. The implementation of the apartheid regime and apartheid legislature 

in the 1950s prompted a new wave of protest music and political consciousness, specifically 

geared towards spreading anti-apartheid rhetoric through the singing of liberation songs. 

The terms liberation music/political song/protest music/freedom songs will be used 

interchangeably throughout this chapter, as all of them relate to music that promoted an anti- 

 
 

3 J.C. Scott. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts, 1990, p. 160. 
4 Tsala ea Batho, 14.06.1913. 



20 
 

apartheid message or called for equality and liberation, or sometimes criticised the liberation 

movement. In the context of this chapter on subversive music in the 1950s, protest music will 

be explored in the context of popular music, as radio broadcasting was introduced across the 

country in the 1950s, which greatly diversified the music industry. Prior to this period, it should 

be noted that the record industry was largely controlled by a white British monopoly. It was 

evident that the record industry in South Africa had clear intentions to produce music by black 

artists for black audiences, using white capital, leading to an ethnically conscious industry.5 

Just as in the case of the production of “black” music, white Afrikaners were also ethnicised 

by the record industry in the country. With regards to the emergence of Afrikaner ethnicity by 

the mid-20th century through the reproduction of Afrikaans music, Grant Olwage argues that 

this cultural phenomenon implicitly influenced notions of ethnicity and fortified the 

conceptualization of apartheid ideology.6 Essentially, Olwage contends that the cultural 

phenomenon of Afrikaner ethnic identity reinforced through the production of music for white 

Afrikaners, influenced concepts of racial, economic, and social separateness. 

This supports the hypothesis that culture - and in this study specifically that the reproduction 

of culture - and lived experiences communicated through music have a strong influence on 

racial consciousness and politics. The emergence of popular music in the country greatly 

influenced the rise of subversive music. New music styles were commercialised and thus 

popularised. These included styles like the “pennywhistle jive” and “street music with jazz 

underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat. It evolved from the marabi sound and 

catapulted South African music to international prominence”.7 The emergence of these new 

genres was greatly influential in the reproduction and commercialisation of liberation songs. 

The medium of liberation songs evolved and converged with the evolution of popular music in 

the 1950s. 

Liberation music historically adapted with the times and social or political movements. As 

musical genres and styles evolved, so too did the reproduction and performance of liberation 

songs. Two elements remained constant, however - the intention to combat a 

regime/institution/ideology/individual, and the intention to persuade the audience to accept the 

message being conveyed. Songs like Udumo Lwamaphoyisa (A Strong Police Force) were sung 

 
5 G. Olwage, “Apartheid’s Musical Signs: Reflections on Black Choralism, Modernity and Race-Ethnicity in the 

Segregation Era”, in G. Olwage (ed), Composing Apartheid: Music For and Against Apartheid, p. 36. 
6 Ibid 39. 
7 L. Collision, “A Brief Guide to South African Music” <https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/a- 

brief-guide-to-south-african-music/> 20.09.2016. 

https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/a-brief-guide-to-south-african-music/
https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/a-brief-guide-to-south-african-music/


21 
 

when the police were near, warning of potential raids and police harassment.8 These messages 

include messages of self-liberation and black consciousness and at times served as a warning 

of danger or police harassment. Political songs often had both characteristics. Liberation songs 

were multi-functional in contesting the apartheid regime, and persuading listeners of the 

necessity of revolution. The ANC’s defiance campaigns in the 1950s shifted away from the 

elitism of the earlier decades, and towards grassroots movements and the political 

consciousness of the masses in townships. Grassroots movements did not thrive on black 

intellectualism, but rather on the shared lived experiences of the masses. As such, having to 

reach a largely non-traditionally literate demographic, the ANC had to employ non-traditional 

mediums of political rhetoric to increase their support base in townships. The use of recordings 

of music was thus commercially viable.9 These non-traditional mediums, like songs or poetry 

for example, were not limited to the use of liberation songs and music but played a vital role in 

reaching a larger audience largely deprived of the luxury of literacy. Vocal jive lyrics in the 

1950s generally used few lyrics that were repetitive with the intention of making it catchy and 

easy for the listener to sing along. As a result, vocalists had to maximise their ability to persuade 

the listener by layering the significance of their lyrics in a few lines. An example of this tactic 

is Meadowlands by Strike Vilakazi. He repeats the phase ‘Meadowlands’ throughout - that is 

the title of the song - making it easy to remember the lyrics. Along with the introduction of 

political rhetoric into lyrics, this became a powerful political tool, leaving the listener to 

decipher the meaning of the obvious message and the veiled one. 

The diversification of the record industry in South Africa was incredibly complex and often 

crossed racial boundaries. The production and consumption of music in the country did not 

remain entirely racially or ethnically homogenous. As such, it is important to note that music 

during the apartheid era that might not have overtly condemned or implicitly supported the 

regime was inclined to elude the state’s intention to maintain a racially separate society by 

crossing racial and ethnic boundaries, and should be acknowledged for its contribution in gently 

negating notions of apartness. Artists were not selective with their audiences. Artists like Dolly 

Rathebe and Miriam Makeba created music intended for all races and genders to listen to. They 

often recorded and collaborated with artists, both locally and internationally, of different races, 

genders and socio-economic backgrounds. Lara Allen notes that the 1950s was a decade in 

which it was possible to self-determine identity, before apartheid prescribed – ethnic/racial 

 

8 T. Genovese, Get Up, Stand Up, p. 5. 
9 L. Allen, “Commerce, Politics, and Musical Hybridity: Vocalizing Urban Black South African Identity during 

the 1950s”, Ethnomusicology, 47(2),2003, p. 234. 



22 
 

identities were imprinted on South African society.10 Allen explores this idea through the lens 

of the white kwela audience in the mid-1950s, a genre of music particular to the black popular 

music industry in South Africa. Kwela was a derivative of the “penny-whistle jive” and 

American swing, and garnered an unprecedented white Afrikaner audience in the country.11 

This genre originated from the township culture of free-hold locations like Sophiatown and 

largely reflected the hybridity of ethnic groups, musicians and intellectuals who lived together 

prior to the imposition of laws that dictated segregated communities. This genre of music that 

crossed racial and ethnic boundaries undermined the core principle of total segregation that the 

apartheid system strove towards. Although it did not explicitly criticise the apartheid regime, 

and not all Afrikaners shared in the idea of non-racialized music, it is important to note the 

significance of kwela’s ability to cross racial barriers in the 1950s. 

These pockets of multi-racial exchanges defied the state’s segregation policies, and the   

evolving music culture in South Africa facilitated such exchanges. The non-racialized message 

of protest songs was reflective of the struggle of many of the citizens in South Africa. All who 

sought equality and justice could relate to protest songs about the liberation movement in the 

1950s. A newspaper in 1958 published a picture of a white woman doing the kwela at a multi-

racial gathering at the home of Advocate Joe Slovo with the caption: “Mrs Sonia Bunting ‘does 

the kwela’ ….”12 This newspaper entry appeared after the announcement of the re-indictment 

of more than sixty trialists at the 1956-1961 Treason Trial. The gathering  was broken up by 

police on the grounds of illegal alcohol consumption. Interracial interactions were frowned 

upon by the apartheid regime and the Security police would raid gatherings where black and 

white people were “mixing”. Illicit beer gatherings were often raided by the security police in 

non-white townships and residential areas, and this became the grounds on which many other 

disruptions of gatherings that defied apartheid segregation rules were justified. This became 

increasingly more prominent with the rise of music genres like kwela, and local artists’ 

collaborations with international artists on “LPs”, which were a new form of long-playing 

record storage medium. The production and distribution of this new form of recording and 

storage medium was primarily targeted at white audiences and consumers, so was the 1957 

release of Something New from Africa by Tony Scot who was an American clarinettist and a 

local band led by Ben Nkosi called “Solven Whistlers”, who played 

 

10 L. Allen, “Kwela’s White Audiences: The Politics of Pleasure and Identification in the Early Apartheid 

Period”, in G. Olwage (ed) Composing Apartheid: Music For and Against Apartheid, p. 80. 
11 Ibid, p. 79. 
12 Golden City Post, 19.10.1958. 



23 
 

pennywhistle music was unique.13 The success of this unprecedented collaboration was 

accompanied by the rise and success of local artists who not only sang about the socio-political 

and economic situations in the country to upbeat jazz, but used music as a propaganda tool to 

spread a political message. With the hybridisation of the music industry and the divergent artists 

that arose from it, the 1950s created an environment for artists of various races, genders, and 

socio-economic backgrounds to flourish. 

2.3. Artists of the 1950s 

 
Dorothy Masuka 

 
 

Figure 1.1: Dorothy Masuka, c. 1952 Photograph by Jurgen Schadeberg. 

 

Dorothy Masuka was arguably one of the most influential female musicians in South African 

history. Born in Southern Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe) on the 3 September 1935, Masuka 

moved to South Africa in 1947 where she attended school at St Thomas Convent School in 

Johannesburg.14 It was here that Masuka’s musical talent was first spotted, and she was signed 

to Troubadour Records. By the mid 1950’s Masuka had become one of the country’s best- 

selling artists, with an extensive catalogue. Masuka was multi-lingual and often sang and 

recorded music in different African languages like Shona and Ndebele from her native country 

of Zimbabwe. She was a proud African Nationalist and used her platform to advocate the 

liberation of oppressed Africans, not only in South Africa but across the continent. Masuka 

travelled across the continent, performing liberation songs in countries like Malawi and 

Tanzania, singing in different African languages with artists like Miriam Makeba who were in 

 

13 Allen, “Kwela’s White Audiences”, p. 79. 
14 Allen, “Commerce, Politics, and Musical Hybridity”, p. 230. 



24 
 

exile too. When authorities got word of her whereabouts, the ANC would move her across 

borders to avoid captivity.15 During the early stages of the apartheid system, many artists like 

Strike Vilakazi and Vuyisile Mini employed multivocality in their songs. Some artists chose to 

use concealed messages and metaphors in their lyrics to criticise the apartheid regime, but 

Masuka was bold about her pan-Africanist stance and her songs often reflected the socio- 

political issues that affected the masses in townships.16 In 1957, she recorded and released the 

hit song Zono-Zam during the ANC’s anti-pass campaign. 

It’s so hard in this world: 

 
Lord, help us to be free 

 

The lyrics of the song highlight the frustration that black South Africans felt at being forced to 

carry several documents and at how their movement was restricted. She proved to be so much 

more than a jazz artist. Masuka showed how radical she was when she recorded and released a 

song entitled Dr Malan, named after the South African Prime Minister Daniel François Malan. 

The song criticised the NP Government and the Prime Minister himself. Masuka belted out 

uDr. Malan Unomthetho Onzim (Dr Malan’s Government is harsh) at the time. Due to the 

fragmented nature of the music industry during the 1950s and the concomitant destruction of 

master copies of many of her songs, exact records of the date of release and publication of 

songs like ‘uDr. Malan have been wiped from public record. No South African artist, 

particularly a young black female had dared to publicly call out the apartheid government, 

much less to call out a Prime Minister in office. Despite how brazen Masuka’s record was, it 

was largely successful and before it was banned, was played on the African re-diffusion 

service.17 Supporters of Masuka’s music were outraged at her exile, and the ANC were directly 

involved in helping her avoid the authorities and smuggled her into other countries to continue 

her work. The NP regime regularly responded to such forms of music by either intimidating 

artists or by seizing and destroying the master copies of their records. This was the case with 

Masuka’s hit song uDr Malan. Record officials at Troubadour Records claimed that the song 

was a praise anthem when the Security police demanded the master copies.18 

At about the same time that uDr Malan was released, Masuka recorded and released a song 

called Chief Luthuli. This song was an ode to the then ANC president, Albert Luthuli. During 

 

15 Ibid. 
16 Ibid. 
17 Allen, “Commerce, Politics, Musical Hybridity”, p. 236. 
18 Ibid, 236. 



25 
 

the apartheid era artists produced and released songs in support of freedom fighters and 

revolutionaries who inspired and drove the liberation movements, not only in South Africa but 

across the African continent. This was the case with Masuka’s 1960 hit Lumumba, which was 

banned, and the original masters of which were seized and destroyed. Lumumba questioned 

the assassination of Congolese Prime Minister and pan-African father Patrice Lumumba, 

which greatly angered the Security police. No copies of the record can now be found.19 

Following this incident, Masuka left the country and spent the next 31 years in exile, being 

moved by the ANC to London, and eventually moving back to the continent and settling in 

Zambia and Zimbabwe until her exile was lifted in 1992. The apartheid regime declared her 

persona non grata and repeatedly denied her re-entry into the country. Many South African 

artists either went into self-imposed exile, or were forced into exile by the regime. These 

included artists like Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim. 

Along with young black female artists like Nancy Jacobs, Mabel Mafuya, Dolly Rathebe, 

Miriam Makeba and an array of other women, Masuka opened up the record industry in South 

Africa during the 1950s to the new culture of a progressive and politically conscious female 

demographic. Troubadour Records played an influential role in the production of music in the 

1950s, specifically in the production and release of music by black female artists. The record 

company encouraged artist to sing songs that reflected everyday experiences and about the 

socio-political climate in the country. 

Artists of Troubadour Records who performed and released music that criticised the apartheid 

regime or were deemed inappropriate, like Masuka’s songs, were subject to police harassment 

in the form of intimidatory raids, and their master copies were seized and destroyed. Mabel 

Mafuya, an artist of Troubadour Records, achieved great success and record sales with her song 

Regina Brooks Khumalo lo Harry Mekela or Regina, which commented on a black policeman 

and white woman’s interracial relationship that was declared to be not in violation of the 

Immorality Act of 1957 when the white woman was declared culturally black in a controversial 

court ruling. 20 The record sold thousands of copies on the day of its release, despite its poignant 

message. Although music that reflected the events of the 1950s did so against the backdrop of 

upbeat pennywhistle jive and jazz instruments, the messages that liberation songs in the 1950s 

carried mirrored the socio-political issues that non-white South Africans endured because of 

 

19 G. Ansell, “Dorothy Masuku: Africa has lost a singer, composer and a hero of the struggle”, 

<https://theconversation.com/dorothy-masuku-africa-has-lost-a-singer-composer-and-a-hero-of-the-struggle- 

112425> 25.02.2019. 
20 Allen, “Commerce, Politics, Musical Hybridity”, p. 234. 

https://theconversation.com/dorothy-masuku-africa-has-lost-a-singer-composer-and-a-hero-of-the-struggle-112425
https://theconversation.com/dorothy-masuku-africa-has-lost-a-singer-composer-and-a-hero-of-the-struggle-112425


26 
 

a racist regime. Songs like Regina and Zono-Zam highlighted the hardships that the black 

majority suffered because of the inequalities perpetuated by the apartheid regime in the 1950s. 

Although it highlighted a particular story and event, Regina was synonymous with the struggles 

that many interracial couples and families faced because of The Immorality Act of 1957, and 

the related legislation. The right to self-determination and freedom of choice was a luxury that 

not all South Africans enjoyed. Troubadour also released several songs about  bus boycotts sung 

and performed by Mafuya between 1956-1957. Nancy Jacobs, who vocalized the famous hit 

Meadowlands by Strike Vilakazi about forced removals in Sophiatown, commented on the 

controversial political and social events of the 1950s. The subject matter of these songs, despite 

their political rhetoric and the commentary on life under  apartheid, garnered mass support, and 

staggering record sales as recorded. 

Strike Vilakazi 

 
During the 1950s, black and coloured communities across the country were subjected to forced 

removals and relocation to townships/locations. Forced removals occurred prior to the 

institution of apartheid legislation, but the implementation of the Group Areas Act of 1950 and 

the Natives Resettlement Act of 1954 prompted mass forced removals in service of a racially 

segregated South Africa. Sophiatown is one of South Africa’s most famous examples of forced 

removals. The 237 acres of land were bought by Herbert Tobiansky in 1897 and named after 

his wife “Sophia”. By 1910 Sophiatown had evolved into a multi-racial community with a 

growing black middle class.21 

Sophiatown’s rapid expansion towards the City, which was primarily a white residential and 

business area, became increasingly problematic for authorities. The multi-racial and multi- 

cultural dynamics in Sophiatown were a threat to the emerging apartheid regime and its pursuit 

of a racially segregated country. Under the Group Areas Act, the freehold location of 

Sophiatown was to be torn down and its residents forcefully removed and relocated to racially 

demarcated areas. The black residents were to be relocated to Meadowlands and parts of 

Soweto (South Western African Township). The forced removal and destruction of Sophiatown 

became the topic of many songs in the 1950s and beyond. One of the most popular songs of 

the 1950s was Meadowlands by Strike Vilakazi. Vilakazi was one of Troubadour Records’ 

most prominent talent scouts, and one of South’s Africa’s most affluent musicians during the 

1950s. From 1952, he ran the black division of Troubadour’s Records called True Tone 

 

21 D. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre, (2nd Edition), p. 170. 



27 
 

Records, and he did so for the two decades that followed.22 Vilakazi was not only a talent scout 

but also a brilliant composer, producer, and musician. He is also credited for his contribution to 

and influence in developing Mbaqanga, a traditionally Zulu style of music.23 In 1955, Vilakazi 

composed Meadowlands, which was sung by Nancy Jacobs and Her Sisters.24 

Verse 1: 

Otla utlwa makgowa a re, (You'll hear the whites say:) 

A re yeng ko Meadowlands (Let's move to Meadowlands;) 

Meadowlands Meadowlands, (Meadowlands 

Meadowlands,) Meadowlands sithandwa sam 

(Meadowlands, my love.) Verse 2: 

Otlwa utlwa batsotsi ba re, (You'll hear the tsotsis say) 

Ons dak nie ons pola hier (We're not moving, we're staying here) 

Pola hier pola hier, (Stay here, stay here,) 

Pola hier sithandwa sam (Stay here, my love.) 

 

 
Figure 1.2: 

Meadowlands lyric 

sheet, c. 1956 by 

Wrasse Records. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meadowlands garnered a lot of local popularity for its catchy tune and the use of SeSotho, Zulu 

and tsotsitaal (slang that makes use of English, Afrikaans, Zulu, SeSotho and Tswana). The 

apartheid regime viewed the song as an anthem in support of the forced removals and relocation 

 

 

22 S. Broughton, M. Ellingham & J. Lusk, The Rough Guide to World Music: Africa & Middle East, p. 354. 
23 G. Ansell, Soweto Blues: Jazz, Popular Music, and Politics in South Africa, p. 79. 
24Wrasse Records, “South African Urban Music Meadowlands– Strike Vilakazi (1956), 

<www.wrasserecords.com> s.a. 

http://www.wrasserecords.com/


28 
 

to Meadowlands. According to Coplan, “black record buyers, however, thought the opposite, 

and Meadowlands became a protest anthem against the Sophiatown removals.”25 This 

assessment of Meadowlands is accurate. The lyrics of the song relate to the diverse population 

of Sophiatown that was forced out. The lyrics “ons pola hier” is indicative of the resistance to 

relocating from Sophiatown. The lyrics of the second verse “ons pola hier” were painted on 

buildings in Sophiatown as a message of resistance to the forced removals, emphasising 

residents’ unwillingness to move.26 Meadowlands also became a song frequently performed by 

other artists over the years, giving their own renditions of the popular song. Masuka did a 

version of the song for the movie Sophiatown. Masuka’s rendition of the song was authentic to 

the original version by Vilakazi. Artists spreading an anti-apartheid government message in 

their songs often used ambiguity in their lyrics in the form of vernacular or slang phrases to 

avoid harassment from the Security police, and to retain air-time for their music. In  the decades 

that followed, many other artists covered and released songs about the destruction of and forced 

removals from Sophiatown. Makeba and the Skylarks released Let’s Pack and Go and 

Sophiatown Is Gone, and the Sun Valley Sisters’ Bye Bye Sophiatown is another example of 

how black residents in Johannesburg felt about the imposition of the Group Areas Act. 

Vuyisile Mini 

 
Vuyisile Mini27 is arguably one of South Africa’s most famous freedom song writers to date. 

Born in 1920 to a dockworker in Mhlanhlane, Tsomo in the Eastern Cape, Mini’s father was 

an active participant in labour union struggles and the depredations in black communities. Mini 

was thus inspired at an early age to take part in protest action against the forced removal of 

Africans from Korsten to KwaZakhele, the bus fare boycotts, and the rent increase protests.28 

Mini’s early political consciousness in his young teens laid the foundation of his political 

affiliation with the ANC’s Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), and more importantly his protest songs. 

Mini joined the ANC in 1951, and hence forth began his political activities. In 1956, Mini was 

one of the trialists in the famous Treason Trial, which took place from 1956-1961. He was 

 

 

 

25 Coplan, In Township Tonight! p. 176. 
26 Wrasse Records. “South African Urban Music Meadowlands– Strike Vilakazi (1956)” www.wrasserecords.com, 

21.09.2021. 
27 Vuyisile Mini was a composer and musician who used his skills as an artist to draw people to the ANC’s anti- 

apartheid cause. Mini composed many freedom songs and was a high-ranking officer in the ANC’s military wing. 
28 V. Msila, “Reliving South African Apartheid History in a Classroom: Using Vuyisile Mini’s Protest Song’s”. 

Creative Education, 4(12B), 2013, p. 52. 

http://www.wrasserecords.com/


29 
 

charged with sabotage and the murder of a Security police informer. During the trial, Mini 

wrote the famous song Nans’indod’emnyama we Verwoerd! 29 

 
Nans’ indod’ emnyama we Verwoerd! (Here comes the black man Verwoerd!) 

Nans’ indod’ emnyama we Verwoerd! (Here comes the black man Verwoerd!) 

Bhasobha nans’ indod’ emnyama we Verwoerd! (Watch out for the black man 

Verwoerd!) 

Bhasobha nans’ indod’ emnyama we Verwoerd! (Watch out for the black man 

Verwoerd!) 
 

Like Dorothy Masuka’s uDr Malan, Mini’s Nans’indod’emnyama we Verwoerd! was a direct 

challenge to the apartheid politician and Prime Minister Dr Hendrik Verwoerd. Mini’s song 

served as a warning to the Prime Minister that he had to be cautious of the radicalism that was 

emerging amongst the black men of the country, as well as a call to black men to revolt against 

the regime represented by Verwoerd. Nans’indod’emnyama we Verwoerd! had a clear overt 

message, but carried a deeper underlying message as well. The song served as a warning not 

only to Verwoerd as the Prime Minister, but to the entire apartheid regime. Mini knew of the 

ANC’s underground operations and was thus aware that the militarisation of the organisation 

was taking place, and of the coming arms struggle. The song could be viewed as a juxtaposition 

of the oppressed majority represented by ‘indod’ emnyama (the African population) and the 

oppressor who was represented by Hendrik Verwoerd. Mini’s rendition of the song forebodes 

an imminent conflict between most of the population and the apartheid state, insinuating that 

the regime should prepare for a possible revolution. Like to Masuka’s uDr Malan, Mini 

expresses his criticism for the ruling NP with a direct warning, and there is also a nuanced 

message in his lyrics. The confrontational nature of the song reflects that radicalization of the 

political groups at the time and the willingness to directly confront and oppose the apartheid 

regime. It simultaneously hinted at the underground missions that Mini was personally 

involved in as the Political Commissar of the Eastern Cape Command of the MK.30 

 

 

 

 
 

29 K. Mtshali & G. Hlongwane, “Contextualizing South Africa’s Freedom Songs: A Critical Appropriation of Lee 

Hirsch’s Amandla!: A Revolution in Four Part Harmony. Journal of Black Studies, 1(22), 2014, p. 9. 
30 N. Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, “They Died Singing: A Historical Perspective in the Liberation of South Africa”, 

The Journal for Progressive Thought, 29(1), 2011, p. 41. 



30 
 

He received direct orders from the High Command and was responsible for ensuring that the 

Regional Command, which contained the largest number of MK units and stretched across the 

Eastern Cape from the Transkei to Knysna, remained in alignment with the mandate of the 

ANC. Mini remained a devoted comrade, and on his arrest refused to give any information 

pertaining to the liberation struggle, upholding the Isifungo31 until his execution. He understood 

the influence and importance of integrating music in the liberation movement. He used his 

position in the ANC to promote liberation music as a form of protest. At gatherings, Mini would 

encourage that liberation songs be part of proceedings. Mini’s audience was with mass of ANC 

supporters, and his protest songs became an important part of ANC gatherings. He was ahead 

of his time in using song to organise and unite the liberation movement. He understood how 

liberation songs could be used to unite not only ANC supporters but all who strove for the 

dismantling of the apartheid regime. His songs mirrored the liberation struggle and reflected 

the everyday struggles that non-whites across the country endured under the apartheid regime. 

He was known as the “organiser of the unorganised”.32 He had the ability to unite masses of 

ANC supporters at gatherings and meetings with liberation songs and chants. It was recalled 

by prisoners who were incarcerated with Mini that he sang freedom songs on his way to the 

gallows. A prisoner who was present at the time of Mini and his comrades’ execution recalled 

that: 

 
Once again, the excruciatingly beautiful music floated through the barred windows, 

echoing round the brick exercise yard, losing itself in the vast prison yards. And 

then, unexpectedly, the voice of Vuyisile Mini came roaring down the hushed 

passages. Evidently, standing on a stool, with his face reaching up to a barred vent 

in his cell, his unmistakable bass voice was enunciating his final message in Xhosa 

to the world he was leaving. In a voice charged with emotion but stubbornly defiant 

he spoke of the struggle waged by the African National Congress and of his absolute 

conviction of the victory to come. And then it was Khayingo’s turn, followed by 

Mkhaba, as they too defied all prison rules to shout out their validations. 33 

 

 

 
 

31 An oath that members of the ANC military wing (MK) took. They pledged to never give information to the 

Security police, regardless of the methods of torture or intimidation used. When you were captured, you went 

down alone. 
32 Genovese, p. 6.



31 
 

 
Although he wrote the song Nans’indod’emnyama we Verwoerd!, he never formally recorded 

it. In 1965 Miriam Makeba recorded an album with Harry Belafonte, a Jamaican-American 

artist and political activist, titled An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. Along with an array of 

other freedom songs on the album, which will be explored further in Chapter 3, Beware 

Verwoerd! (Ndodemnyama) featured on the album. Long after the death of Mini and the 

assassination of Verwoerd, the song was sung throughout the liberation movement. Mini was 

a martyr to liberation. He was executed as a freedom fighter and gave his life for the cause, and 

the song remained relevant throughout the years of the liberation movement, even after Mini’s 

passing. With the inauguration of each apartheid president that followed the last Prime Minister 

Verwoerd, the lyrics were amended to address the president of the time. Nans’indod’emnyama 

we Verwoerd! became synonymous with the anti-apartheid movement and a timeless classic. 

Mini wrote another song while in captivity during the Treason Trial in the 1950s, called Thath’ 

Umthwalo Bhuti Sigoduke. Despite it not being an overtly politically conscious song, it was 

widely sung in the decade that followed, specifically in the period after the Sharpeville massacre 

by political prisoners and activists who were in exile. This song emphasised Mini’s desire to 

go home and highlighted his exhaustion with the drawn-out trial. Thath’ Umthwalo Bhuti 

Sigoduke also spoke of “home” as a heavenly place. Refusing to give up his comrades, Mini 

knew that a death sentence was imminent. 

 

Thath’ Umthwalo Bhuti Sigoduke (Take Up Your Things Brother, Let’s Go) 

 
Balindile oMama noBaba ‘ekhaya’ (They are waiting, our mothers and fathers at home)34 

 
Arguably one of the ANC’s worst omissions was its failure to formally write down and record 

freedom songs. Failing to document or audio record freedom songs often resulted in the loss of 

said songs. Mini not only wrote a commercially successful song, Nans’indod’emnyama we 

Verwoerd! famously recorded by Makeba, but he was also a composer of many songs that 

became synonymous with liberation movement and were traditionally sung at ANC 

 
 

33 Sechaba 9.09.1969, p. 11. 
34  N.L.L. Ramoupi, “They Died Singing: A Historical Perspective in the Liberation of South Africa”, The Thinker, 

29, 2011,   p. 42.



32 
 

gatherings. His fewer formal compositions proved to be the most powerful. The liberation songs 

composed by Mini that were not covered by famous artists or recorded, had a great impact on 

the liberation struggle. The songs that Mini composed that were not as commercially successful 

as Nans’indod’emnyama we Verwoerd! were the songs that were sung at ANC gatherings, 

rallies, and protest actions. Mini was known as the voice of the ANC. He carried the “gospel of 

the Congress” and his songs bridged the gap between racial and national boundaries.35 

Regardless of his affiliation with the ANC, Mini’s freedom songs were sung by liberation 

activists from different political parties, and by masses of South African’s who did not share 

the same cultural or racial backgrounds. Mini’s songs became an integral part of political 

gatherings of the liberation movement throughout the apartheid years. The failure to officially 

record the freedom songs means that in time many of them were lost, and those that survived 

were passed down in oral form only. These freedom songs had many of the characteristics of 

vocal-jive music in the 1950s. They were short and had repetitive vernacular lyrics to make it 

easier to sing them. The informal nature of these songs, however, made them less accessible to 

commercial audiences such as those who listened to the radio or those who purchased records.  

Their lack of formal recording and instrumentation made these freedom songs less accessible 

across language and racial divides. They did, however, play a crucial part in the anti-apartheid 

movement. Protest action in the form of boycotts, toyi-toyi and political gatherings, both 

underground and overt, were synonymous with these freedom songs. They united masses of 

people in unison, all articulating the same message through song. These freedom songs became 

so powerful that the Security police hesitated to arrest political leaders at events where this kind 

of choralism took place.36 The mass solidarity at gatherings where songs were sung in unison 

were intimidating. Daring to arrest leaders or disrupting such gatherings would surely be met 

by resistance or even violent outbreaks. During the ANC’s Defiance Campaign in 1952, Mini 

composed Mayihambe Ie vangeli. 

Mayihambe Ie vangeli (Let this Gospel be spread) 

 
Mayigqib' ilizwe lonke (And be known throughout the world) 

 

He also composed another song, again serving as a warning to Verwoerd. Even though Mini 

was incarcerated, he never denounced the struggle and continued to criticise the apartheid 

regime and its leaders in song. Mini warned Verwoerd about the collective power of Africans 

 

 

35 Khumalo of the ANC, “A Poem of Vengeance”. Spotlight of South Africa, 1964, p. 16. 
36 Ibid, p.16. 



33 
 

when they unite. He faithfully believed in the envisaged possible revolt against the apartheid 

regime and boldly vocalized his beliefs. 

'Izakunyathel' i Afrika (Africa will trample you underfoot) 

 
Verwoerd shoo (Verwoerd) 

 
Uza kwenzakala' (Beware you shall die) 

 

Lastly, Mini composed a song that was a forewarning of the eruption of violence between the 

oppressed and the oppressor. The song was called Siza kubadubula ngembai-mbai, the lyrics 

of which emphasised the willingness of those who opposed apartheid to take up arms. It is 

evident that Mini’s devoted membership of the ANC’s military wing meant that he knew that 

violent encounters between the apartheid regime and the liberation forces was imminent. His 

lyrical content did not shy away from the radicalism that the MK employed regarding sabotage 

tactics and the underground struggle. It can be argued that Mini’s compositions about the armed 

struggle hinted at the ANC’s (and other political parties like the Pan Africanist Congress and 

the South African Communist Party’s) acquisition of weapons and sufficient firepower to 

challenge the regime. He was radicalised by the increasing oppression taking place under the 

apartheid regime and the suffering that black South Africans endured because of 

institutionalised racism. Passive diplomacy by the politicians had proved to be ineffective in 

achieving results and it was clear that the apartheid system would not be dismantled without 

force. See the lyrics: 

'Siza kubadubula ngembai-mbai, (We shall shoot the oppressors with cannon) 

 
Bazakubaleka, (They are going to flee before we shoot) 

 
Dubula ngembai-mbai!' (shoot with cannon!) 

 

He also participated in writing a short calypso in English about the struggles of the people in 

Cuba and Zanzibar. The Cold War between the United States of America (USA) and the Soviet 

Union was intensifying in the 1950s. The apartheid regime was an ally of the USA and assumed 

an anti-communist stance.37 In return, the USA did not want to interfere in South Africa’s 

domestic policies, provided the regime kept the communist threat at bay. The ANC’s Pan- 

Africanist core and support for decolonisation on the African continent in the late 1950s was 

 

37 P. Rich, “United States Containment Policy, South Africa and the Apartheid Dilemma”, Review of International 

Studies, 14(2), 1988, p. 180. 



34 
 

not absent in from freedom songs of the time. As in Masuka’s Lumumba, Mini encouraged the 

liberation movement to seize the country the way revolutionary Fidel Castro had seized Cuba 

in 1959, by staging a coup and ascended to power as the President. See the lyrics: 

Take the Country the Castro/ 

Zanzibar Way 

Mini became increasingly radical in his compositions, encouraging the idea of a coup or 

revolution. The ANC was inspired by liberation movements across the globe and identified 

with the necessity for forceful regime change, which had occurred in other nations like Algeria 

and Ghana. This was reflected in many of the liberation songs that were produced in the 1950s. 

It had become evident that peaceful protests were not going to be successful in achieving 

national change, and therefore more radical means would be required. 

Aside from Mini’s compositions in the 1950s, there were other freedom songs that reflected 

the socio-political climate of the country. However, the authors of these compositions are 

unknown, but they were popular across the country. During the ANC’s Defiance Campaign in 

1952, activists who were arrested were singing: 

Imithetho ka Malani isiphethe nzima (Malan's laws are a burden to us) 

 
Mayibuy' i Afrika (Come back Africa) 

 

When Chief Albert Luthuli became the President of the ANC in 1952, people sang: 

Malan O tshohiIe Ie 'muso oa hae (Malan has taken fright with his 

government/regime) Luthuli phakisa onke' mmuso (Make haste Luthuli and take over 

the government) 

During the 1956 women’s march against pass laws, the famous Wathint' abafazi, wathint' 

imbokodo was sung. The song originated from the women’s movement’s disdain for the pass 

laws that increasingly oppressed black and coloured women. In 1913 the Orange Free State 

Native and Coloured Women’s Association organized protests forced removals and pass 

campaigns in the Orange River Colony Free State, and in 1918 Charlotte Maxeke founded the 

Bantu Women’s League with the abolition of pass laws at its core. The composer of the song 

is unknown, but women who attended the march simultaneously broke out in unison outside 

the Union Buildings in Pretoria, singing the lyrics that served as a warning to the apartheid 

government. The women’s movement demanded change and the lyrics of the song reflected 

their willingness to induce change by forceful means, if necessary. Black and coloured women



35 
 

in South Africa were required to carry residential passes as far back as the late 19th century in 

the Orange River Colony Free State.38 Following the announcement by the apartheid  

government in 1955 that required women that lived in urban townships to buy new entry 

permits each month, women across the country decided to sign a petition called “The Demand 

of the Women of South Africa for the Withdrawal of Passes for Women and the Repeal of the 

Pass Laws”.39 In this document, the women of South Africa demanded that the pass laws be 

repealed which brought them immense strife. At the march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, 

women were recorded singing: 

Hey Strydom, (Hey Strydom/Strijdom) 

 
Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo (You strike a woman, you strike a rock) 

 
uza kufa' (You will be crushed) 

 
Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo (You strike a woman, you strike a rock) 

 
uza kufa' (You will be crushed) 

 

This freedom song directly referred to the Prime Minister, Johannes Gerhardus Strijdom. He 

was      Prime Minister from 1954 to 1958. The song reflected how fed-up African women were 

with the abuse they were enduring under the apartheid regime, and in the 1950s with the 

restrictive pass laws. The pass laws clearly distinguished wh