South Africa’s Johnny Clegg begins last international tour

JOHANNESBURG — South African musician Johnny Clegg defied the country’s apartheid-era racial barriers, celebrated its new democracy under Nelson Mandela and took his Zulu-infused music around the world. Now after treatment for pancreatic cancer, he is launching a last international tour that he calls “The Final Journey.”

Clegg said Thursday he feels “fit and strong” as he begins the tour showcasing his blend of Western and African musical styles.

The British-born singer, whose multi-racial bands during white minority rule in South Africa drew a staunch foreign following, has already played some South African shows and plans stops in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia in the coming months. He performed in London last month and has a Sept. 20 show in Dubai.

“These shows are hard for me,” he told journalists at a Johannesburg hotel. “I’m dealing with another, parallel world that I live in with my diagnosis.”

Clegg, 64, also spoke about the Zulu music and dancing that he learned as a teenager, when he hung out with a Zulu cleaner and street musician called Charlie Mzila.

Clegg recalled playing music in his early days on rooftops and later in packed venues, “the idea of crossover” that inspired diverse music with the bands Juluka and Savuka and the apartheid-era censorship that restricted where he could perform and sometimes led to his arrest.