His life in music was a struggle against narrow definitions - of ‘race’, instrumental appropriateness and musical genre.
Articles on anti-apartheid music
Displaying all articles
Onyeka Onwenu, Nigerian musician, political activist and documentary maker, died on 30 July 2024.
In his work Abdullah Ibrahim looked to the past to offer a vision of the future.
Jazz star Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse has turned 70. In 50 years, his music career has come to help define South African politics and popular culture.
His bass guitar was a shaping sound of South African jazz and of the band Malopoets, whose huge influence has been poorly documented.
The revered trombonist, composer and cultural activist never wished to be ‘the state composer’ but remained political until the end, in service of the people.
It took ages for one of African jazz’s hidden masterpieces to be reissued. Still today, four decades later, 1976’s ‘African Songbird’ tells volumes about the politics of the time.
