SA’s Clegg sings, kicks on ‘final tour’

Breaking boundaries

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 13, (Agencies): At 64, his pancreatic cancer in remission, South African musician Johnny Clegg kicked high and stomped five consecutive times — the signature move of Zulu war dancing — during a packed Johannesburg concert that he says is one of his last.

Clegg performed what he called an “autobiographical show” on Saturday night as part of his “Final Journey” tour. He delivered hits inspired by Zulu and South African township rhythms, as well as pop, folk and country and western, songs that he developed in defiance of racial barriers imposed by South Africa’s apartheid system decades ago.

Clad in a black T-shirt, Clegg didn’t dance barechested as he used to do and his concert was interspersed with performances from guest musicians, allowing him time for breaks. The man sometimes called the “White Zulu” said his manager, apparently concerned for the performer’s health, didn’t want the show to last too long.

However, Clegg said: “This is my last chance to share with Johannesburg what shaped me and brought me into your lives and brought you to my life, and this was the fact that all of these entries into traditional culture gave me a way of understanding myself, helping me to shape a kind of African identity for myself, and freed me up to examine another way of looking at the world.”

The performer was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, and the grueling treatment that followed included two six-month sessions of chemotherapy and an operation that he said had “reconfigured my tubing.”

Since then, Clegg has released a new album called “King of Time” and recently returned to South Africa after performing in Canada and the United States. He described Saturday’s show as his “last public performance in Johannesburg,” and his website lists a Nov. 25 concert in Cape Town and more dates in the South African city of Port Elizabeth in late January. He has previously said he planned shows in Europe and Australia.

Clegg

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Clegg explored his idea of “crossover” music with the multi-racial bands Juluka and Savuka at a time of bitter conflict in South Africa over the white minority rule that ended in 1994. During the Johannesburg concert, he was joined on stage for a couple of songs by Juluka co-founder Sipho Mchunu, and paid tribute with the song “The Crossing” to longtime dancing companion Dudu Ndlovu, who was fatally shot in 1992.

A few people tried out Zulu-style high kicks in a parking lot before the show at the Ticketpro Dome venue. Many of the thousands of fans were on their feet for the last songs of a performer they had known through hard years of racial conflict, and during South Africa’s transition to democracy. “We love you, Johnny,” a woman shouted several times.

Although mindful of mortality, Clegg seemed reluctant to accept that it might be the last time.

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to see you guys again on stage,” he said. “But we’ll see how it goes.”

Pop star Davido gets the same reaction wherever he goes in Africa, whether it’s in Guinea or Mozambique, Botswana, Kenya or Sierra Leone: teeming crowds and adoring fans.

The 24-year-old icon was one of the favourites for best artist at this year’s All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), which took place in Lagos this weekend.

AFRIMA — sponsored by the African Union — are the continent’s equivalent of the American Grammy Awards, with interest reflecting the continent’s rich seam of emerging talent.

Davido and his Nigerian compatriot Wizkid, Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz, Sarkodie of Ghana and Ivory Coast’s DJ Arafat are leading a musical revolution: Afrobeats.

The genre was born in Nigeria but has spread across Africa as fast as the rhythm of the bass in a nightclub.

“Nigerians knew how to mix all the influences of Afropop: Congolese soukous, Ivorian coupe-decale, Ghanaian Highlife, Jamaican dancehall,” said video journalist Hugo Claveau, who wrote and directed the documentary, “Afrobeats, From Nigeria to the World”.

“They created a sound for all of Africa. They created the first pan-African music,” Claveau told AFP.

Banning Eyre, an African music specialist, added: “It’s very interesting for me, because it’s totally different from what we’ve seen in the African scene for the past 30 years.”

Afrobeats (with an ‘s’) — a name given in homage to the Afrobeat (without an ‘s’) of the 1970s — was born about 10 years ago with pioneers such as 2Face, D’Banj and P-Square.

The internet and satellite television channels did the rest.

“Music channels like MTV or Channel O made a big impact on exporting Nigerian music,” said Efe Omorogbe, 2Face’s manager and the head of the Now Muzik Limited label.

“For the first time you could sit at home in South Africa and you see the best of Nigerian artists.”

In its wake came the French channel TRACE, which in turn led to TRACE Naija (slang for Nigeria) two years ago, where Nigerian music accounts for about 60 percent of its output.

Popular

TRACE Africa is one of the most popular channels in French-speaking Africa and about a third of its programming is exclusively Nigerian.

Omorogbe said the channels “broke the boundaries. Now Africa makes one boundary, not 53”.

The increase in festivals and events such as AFRIMA has equally allowed artists to meet, exchange ideas and collaborate.

Wizkid, for example, sings on “My Soweto Baby” with the South African DJ Buckz.

Ivory Coast’s DJ Arafat and Nigerian Iyanya use their song “Fever” to call on “Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria” to dance together. The internet has again been a game-changer. “Kenyan afro-pop star Sauti Sol sent me a beat and I liked it, I thought it was cool,” said Kritzbeatz, a 22-year-old Nigerian music producer.

“So I did a mix with my sound and now we have ‘Whine for me’. He came to Lagos for an event, so we took this opportunity to shoot the video clip.”