"[ Man ] Attention!" "Your left, right!" "[ Chanting In African Dialect ]" "Oh, left turn!" "[ Chanting In African Dialect ]" "[ Man ] Form the unit and fight ♪" "Hoos, hoos ♪ Form the unit and fight ♪" "[ Chanting In African Dialect ]" "[ Chanting Continues ]" "[ Women Ululating ]" "[ Chanting Continues ]" "[ Chanting Fades ]" "[ Man ] Amandla!" "[ Crowd ] Awethu!" "Amandla!" "Awethu!" "Song is something that we communicated with people... who otherwise would not... have understood where we're coming from." "You could give them a long political speech." "They would still not understand." "But I tell you, when you finish that song, people will be like, "Damn!" "I know where you niggers are coming from." "I know where you guys are coming from." "Death unto apartheid"." "[ Man ] It's about the liberation struggle." "It's about those children who took to the streets, fighting, screaming "Free Nelson Mandela"." "It's about those unions... who put down their tools and demanded freedom." "Lizobuya." "Yes." "Yebo!" "Yes!" "Yeah!" "Hey!" "Hey, oh ♪" "Freedom ♪" "[ Man ] This is the unknown grave ♪" "The one ♪" "Who died maintaining his mind ♪" "His will had been so strong and musically inclined ♪" "His sad melody ♪" "Is coming out like smoke from the wood fire ♪" "Confessing ♪" "Who died last night ♪" "Who died this morning ♪" "And why ♪" "One dangerous mind and four million graves ♪" "Look down into the grave and do not weep ♪" "Skeleton confessing the loss of music and culture and beliefs ♪" "Skeleton confessing the age of lamentations ♪" "And the age of broken minds and souls ♪" "I picked up the soil from this unknown grave ♪" "And blew it up with the wind as to make reference one day ♪" "And I say ♪" "Mayibuye, iAfrika ♪" "Sing now, Africa ♪" "Sing loud and sing to the people ♪" "[ People Chattering In African Dialect ]" "[ Chattering Continues ]" "[ Whistles ]" "[ Man Vocalizing ]" "[ Vocalizing Continues ]" "Mini, you see, set a particular trend of every freedom fighter... for our country that... it's freedom or death." "He had this incredible bass voice, he was an incredible composer of song... and that every week seemed to produce a new song." "And that, uh, that" "He was also, probably because of this amazing bass voice, was one of the best organizers in the liberation movement." "So, song had become an organizer, and I think he was the embodiment of this reality." "[ Woman ] If you meet somebody who knew our father, he will tell you that your father was the greatest." "He was a singer, he was a composer, he was a politician." "He was the people's man." "This is the number which belonged to him... when he was sentenced to death." "[ People Singing ] This is the number." "[ Singing Continues In African Dialect ]" "Mighty of the mightiest." "Thank you." "It was because they refused... to give evidence... against their colleagues." "That was all." "[ Speaking In African Dialect ]" "We thank you, comrade." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "He was hung-- physically hung." "We were spiritually hung." "Do you think that when they report... cases of ill treatment of Africans... that they're really exaggerating?" "Not only exaggerated, it's a bunch of lies from "A" to "Z"." "There are, here and there, a little whipping, you know, and that sort of thing." "That you find everywhere, perhaps, in the world." "Our policy is one... which is called by an Afrikaans word," ""apartheid"." "And I'm afraid that has been misunderstood so often." "It could just as easily... and perhaps much better be described... as a policy of good neighborliness." "Because it was-- You were almost daring them." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing Continues ] [ Man Shouting, Indistinct ]" "[ Woman Ululating ] -[ Man ] The people of the world will rise up!" "[ Shouting, Indistinct ]" "We will always remain a portage of freedom." "It can change." "It can change." "We are the Africans of Africa!" "[ Singing "Beware Verwoerd" In African Dialect ]" "Naants' indod' emnyama Verwoerd ♪" "Bhasobha naants' indod' emnyama Verwoerd ♪" "Bhasobha-- ♪ And this sound like a" "That sounds like a" "Sounds like a-a-a fun song." "But it's really like, "Watch out, Verwoerd." "Here comes the black man." "Your days are over with"." "[ Women Singing "Beware Verwoerd" In African Dialect ]" "[ Men Join In Singing ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ Shouting In Unison ]" "Sophiatown was the place in Alexandra Township, but they were also very rough for us as singers, you know." "Because everybody wanted to be with the singer." "And so they-- [ Laughs ]" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "Dolly?" "Hello." "Come quick." "Come and see yourself." "Come." "Come, come." "Come quick." "[ Speaking In African Dialect ] Wow!" "Hey!" "First African film star." "[ Both Speaking In African Dialect ]" "Hey, look at you, man." "Look at you." "Sexy." "Okay. "We won't move"." "Look." "They are breaking down our doors there." "Sophiatown." "Do you remember when they started moving us?" "That is, I think, '56 or" "Yeah." "See, apartheid could not... handle the whole country overnight." "So everything just kept on-- stage by stage, from 1948, when the Nats came into" "They went from one neighborhood to the next," ""cleaning up," as they called it." "Making the picture look white." "[ Man Narrating ] To physically contain nonwhites in their own areas, thousands of natives have been moved by force to government-built housing." "[ Rathebe ] We were just forced out of Sophiatown... into a place called Meadowlands." "[ Mgcina ] The houses-- It looks like a-- [ Rathebe ] Matchboxes." "Yeah, like a train." "If the windows are open in the morning, it's like carriages-- train carriages." "[ Mgcina ] No yard. [ Rathebe ] Hmm." "No nothing." "Hmm." "When there was the forced removals, uh, in Sophiatown, there was a song that became a hit, but it came off the street." "I don't know if you've heard of "Meadowlands"." "You know." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "♪" "Meadowlands Meadowlands ♪" "Meadowlands [ African Dialect ] ♪" "Meadowlands Meadowlands ♪" "Meadowlands [ African Dialect ] ♪" "They used to clap hands, huh?" "They think we're, you know" "Yeah." "It's nice music. "Oh, these blacks can sing so nice." "They can sing so nice"." "And they clap their hands, and we're saying," "We will shoot you We will kill you ♪" "[ Both Laughing ]" "Be careful what you say ♪" "[ Both Laughing ]" "Uh, but-- You're gonna die slowly ♪" "Be careful ♪ What you say ♪" "What you do ♪ [ Laughing ] [ Laughing ]" "You know, you'll hear the white people say... we have to, like, uh, leave here." "And then you'll hear the Tsotsis say," ""We're not going anywhere." "We're staying here"." "[ Mgcina Laughs ] [ Rathebe Speaking, Indistinct ]" ""We're not moving!" Of course." "Oh, yeah." "But... we moved." "We had to." "[ Loud Bang ]" "♪" "[ Women Singing "Meadowlands" ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "Apartheid created a-- an environment of denial and lies." "You had to live it from day to day." "[ Ntuli Speaking ]" "South Africa defines me." "You know what really defi" "It's the mountains." "It's the smell." "It's the-- It's the madness." "'Cause we are a mad people." "How can we not be?" "Apartheid was schizophrenic." "If you look at apartheid as a-- as a character, uh, this individual, he was a very schizophrenic character." "One minute smiling, but by the very same token-- uh, the very same-- the very same minute, murdering." "We don't even know how deeply this affected us, because apartheid has affected all of us." "You know, white, black-- across the board." "The only thing is that we-- maybe we don't want to admit it, you see?" "[ Ibrahim ] Here's a mother, a black mother, standing with her child, right?" "Little black child at the bus stop." "Okay?" "The bus comes, and the bus stops, and the mother lets the bus go." "The bus is empty." "Now, this child wants to know from the mother, why did they not get on the bus?" "What they actually did was they created the laws, but we had to execute them." "♪" "[ Ibrahim ] The thing that saved us was music." "So the music was actually-- is not even what we call "liberation music" or what." "It was part of liberating ourselves." "[ People Singing In African Dialect ]" "It's not a revolutionary song, as we would call some of the songs that we sang." "You know, it's a prayer." ""Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika"." "It's a very g-g-genuine, soothing, very unthreatening prayer." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Ndlovu ] You know, it has survived the times." "I think it was written in somewhere in the late 1800s, and it's still here with us today." "Amandla!" "Awethu!" ""Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika" became the alternative anthem... for people who were opposed to the apartheid regime." "So it was a song that was sung at the beginning of meetings and at the end of the meetings." "You had mothers trying to instill... a sense of fear." ""You will not sing 'Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika'... because the state does not like it"." "At schools, it-- it stopped." "Somewhere from the cracks of all of that repression, you'd find the song permeating." "Because a schoolteacher in the schools... would refuse to just think that this is a subversive song, and you'd hear that song being sung." "And you would know that it was a sign of protest." "And everybody would feel very great just by listening to them." "[ Kwaito ]" "Second segment of "Youth Crossfire" now in full effect." "Talking about freedom songs." "Liberation songs that were sung by activists, protestors." "Looking at just how these songs were used to mobilize... and to strengthen the community at large." "Well, I suppose times where... they were mostly used when people were very angry." "Mm-hmm." "Irrational." "Right." "Facing bullets with stones." "The freedom songs evoked a kind of pride in me, which kwaito does not." "There was no age-group boundary for freedom songs." "Absolutely not." "You could be standing next to a 60-year-old woman... who would be singing "Senzenina" or whatever." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "And there would be a bond and an immediate kind of acknowledgment... of commonality in what we were about." "Now, now, now, do you think older comrades appreciate, um" "Are you talking to me?" "I'm talking to you, yeah." "I'm talking to you." "I'm not an older comrade." "[ Laughing ] However, I do believe... that I'm kind of like a bridge between that generation, because I remember the '80s." "Mm-hmm." "And I remember singing freedom songs, and I remember running away from police." "Right." "I also wake up in the morning and groove to Phat Joe." "You know?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "Where do these songs come from?" "Where do they originate from?" "Who wrote them?" "Do we know the people?" "Do you know who put them together?" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "African people always made music." "Right." "Nobody ever said, "I wrote this song in three minutes,"" "or "I wrote it in three months." "This is my song"." "Mm-hmm." "Because you start a song, and someone backs you, and people just build up a song." "What I'm saying is that song didn't give birth to struggle." "Yeah?" "Struggle gave birth to" "No." "Which one came first?" "Struggle gave birth to song." "No." "No, no, no, no." "That's not true." "[ All Speaking At Once ]" "[ People Arguing ]" "We are a spiritual people, and one of the ways of expressing spirituality is through song." "One of the ways that an African... feels closer to his creator... or her creator is through song." "We were raised in families and homes... where our parents would break into song at the slightest provocation." "When your mother couldn't figure out what to feed you for that night... because she didn't have any money-- she came back from looking for a job-- she would break into a dirge that would be expressing how she felt." "[ Whistle Blowing ] [ Man Narrating ] Every day of the year, except Sundays and holidays, trains come to a halt... at this siding in Johannesburg." "Every day they unload cheap cargoes of human labor." "Without these men, the economy of South Africa would collapse." "When all our land was taken, and we had to go to... the urban areas to look for work, the train is what we had to get on." "So, the train has always been a symbol of something... that took away your mother or your father... or your parents or your loved one." "[ Masekela ] Because the train was... really South Africa's first tragedy." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "♪" "There's a train that comes from Malawi and Namibia ♪" "There's a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe ♪" "There's a train that comes from Angola and Mozambique ♪" "[ Cheering ] [ Masekela ] This train ♪" "Carries young and old African men ♪" "Who are conscripted to come and work on contract ♪" "In the gold and mineral mines of Johannesburg ♪" "And its surrounding provinces and "metropoli" ♪" "Sixteen hours or more a day ♪" "For almost no pay ♪" "Deep, deep ♪" "Deep, deep down in the belly of the earth ♪" "Right under where you're standing now ♪" "When they are digging and drilling ♪" "For that shiny mighty evasive stone ♪" "Or when they dish that mish-mash-mush food ♪" "Into their iron plates with their iron shovel ♪" "Or when they sit in their stinky ♪" "Filthy, funky ♪ [ Pretends To Spit ]" "Flea-ridden barracks and hostels ♪" "And they think about the loved ones they may never see again ♪" "Because they might already have been forcibly removed ♪" "From where they last left them ♪" "Or wantonly murdered in the dead of night ♪" "By roving and marauding gangs of no particular origin ♪" "And when they hear that choo-choo train ♪" "Smoking and a-steaming and a-pushing and a-crying ♪" "And a-steaming and a-pushing and a-hustling and trembling and a-standing ♪" "Tooting and a-steaming and crying and pushing ♪" "Tooting and a-steaming and a-toting ♪" "Screeching and a-crying and ♪ [ Mimics Train Whistle ]" "They always curse and they curse the coal train ♪" "The coal train that brought them to Johannesburg ♪" "Stimela ♪ [ Mimics Train Whistle ]" "Dizzy Gillespie said to me, uh, in the 1970s," ""Man, I'd like to be part of your revolution, because the people are always dancing and singing"." "♪" "[ Trumpet Solo Continues ]" "You know, having a voice-- a singing voice-- is a gift." "And that gift gave me power, because I didn't have to work like my mother, as a domestic servant." "I used the voice, this gift from God, to earn a living." "I was a nanny once." "I looked after some white little babies." "And, uh, you know, you take that baby, put it on your back, and it feels the warmth of your back, and you hold it." "And the child really becomes like yours." "And then that very child, as it grows up... it is told that you are different... and you must be treated different." "And this is the child that will grow up and call you names." "Madam, please ♪" "Before you shout about your broken plate ♪" "Ask about the meal my family ate ♪" "Madam, please ♪" "Before you laugh at the watchman's English ♪" "Try to answer ♪" "In his Zulu language ♪" "Madam, please ♪" "Before you say that the driver stinks ♪" "Come take a bath ♪" "In our Soweto sink ♪" "Madam, please, before you ask me ♪" "If your children are fine ♪" "Ask me when Ask me when ♪" "I last saw mine ♪" "Madam, please, before you call today's funeral a lie ♪" "Ask me why my people die ♪" "Ask me why my people die ♪" "Madam, please ♪" "Beautiful." "[ Narrator ] Mrs. Woery, decides, however, to check up on something else." "That is whether her servant has his reference book... and if his service contract is in order." "Nothing missing, [ Chuckles ] except one tooth." "[ Men Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ People Shouting ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "There are many people who feel... that it is useless and futile... for us to continue talking peace and nonviolence... against a government whose reply... is only savage attacks... on an unarmed and defenseless people." "You know?" "About the pass laws." "Yes." "[ Rathebe ] F-F-For us not to carry passes." "I remember at one stage they said we should burn all these passes." "I know." "But it was trouble after that." "I know." "[ Whistles ]" "[ Man Narrating ]" "It happened on Monday, March 21, 1960. [ Shouting ]" "Several hundred natives gathered peacably... to protest the pass laws." "Police, mounted on tanks, opened fire." "Sixty-nine natives were killed, 176 wounded." "Most of the victims were shot in the back." "[ Siren Wailing ]" "...black South Africa went into shock." "[ Choir Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Man Narrating ] Is the voice of protest heard in South Africa?" "Most of the opposition has been stilled by banning or arrest... and no longer can their words be heard or read." "[ Ndlovu ] Nelson Mandela had been sent away forever, and that was how it was to our parents." "And the government had kind of introduced... this blanket fear among people." "[ Choir Continues Singing "Thina Sizwe" ]" "[ Ndlovu ] I was traveling with my father to a train station." "We were going somewhere, dressed nicely in our suits, and my father was holding me." "I was about nine years old." "I was just learning to read." "And there was a graffiti at the train station that said," ""Free Mandela or bombs"." "And my father actually slapped me." "Because I was reading." "I was just learning to read." "And something there-- "Free Mandela or bombs"." "My father couldn't read or write." "So, I mean, to him, he must have wondered... why I shout Mandela's name in public and stuff like that." "You know, there was that kind of thing." "That's what happened to song." "[ Ndlovu ] You couldn't just break out into song... and sing any type of song in the streets." "I've spoken about "Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika"." "You couldn't sing Miriam Makeba's songs." "You would get arrested." "Whether we like it or not, um, the spirit of the people... was broken by the shootings, by the banning of the organizations," "by the exodus of leadership into exile." "Exile was a spiritual desert." "That's what I have always called it." "It's an emptiness." "It's a spiritual" "You go into this-- the Kalahari of the spirit." "I took my little girl from here when she was nine, and she came to join me in America." "She never came back, 'cause she died before we came back." "And, uh, my mother died." "I couldn't come and bury her." "The hardest thing in exile... was dreaming." "Because you would dream that you were at home." "[ Chuckles ] Imagine sitting in New York and dreaming that you were at home, then waking up to the reality that you're not and you can't go." "You can't go back." "I remember my first year," "I was sitting in Central Park, and I was talking to myself." "I hadn't spoken Zulu for a long time, or Suthu." "I was beginning to dream in English, and it was starting to worry me, and I was sitting there." "And so as not to forget the language, I was talking to myself." "So I was-- [ Speaking In African Dialect ]" "I was talking to myself." "[ Chuckles ]" "And then I'd change and I'd say" "[ Speaking In African Dialect ]" "You know what I mean?" "I was alone, and I was changing languages and everything." "And some people were looking at me in Central Park, and they called a cop, and they said," ""Think that guy maybe is losing it, you know?"" "At one time we were saying," ""Free in '63!"" "[ Laughing ]" "Not knowing it's gonna be years." "[ Choir Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "I think, in South Africa, there is a song... that everybody, at one point or another, sang, particularly in the '70s, I'm not very sure in the '80s." "Senzenina ♪" "Senzenina ♪" "Senzenina ♪" "Senzenina ♪" "Senzenina ♪" "Senzeni Senzenina ♪" "Oh, Senzenina ♪" "Can you imagine?" "That's one line." "Senzenina." ""What have we done?"" "Over and over and over." "I mean, come on." "You have no other option but to stand up and go and fight." "I mean, you've" " If somebody asks you that, you know, it's like hammering somebody." "Just like go-- koosh, koosh, koosh." "[ Man ] Senzenina ♪" "Senzenina ♪" "[ Singing Continues ]" "Somewhere along the line, a thousand years from now, we will be forced to sit down and review our history." ""Senzenina," like "We Shall Overcome,"" "will take her rightful place in society." "Because at one time, a mass body of people... related to that song and touched each other's hearts using that song." "[ Man Narrating ] In the townships, peaceful protests... have escalated into bloody rioting, and civil disturbance was rife throughout the republic." "[ Man Narrating In Afrikaans ]" "The '76 riots led directly from the fact... that the apartheid government tried to make Afrikaans... the medium of instruction in schools." "So that meant that you would have to learn... math, science, geography in Afrikaans, and black kids basically said no to that." "Children were killed because of a language." "[ Rathebe ] Afrikaans." "Afrikaans." "We wrote songs to say to the children, you are strong, you are beautiful, you are" "Black." "That's it." "You belong." "[ Shouting ] [ Man Over Bullhorn ] Please disperse!" "It's illegal for you to be like that." "[ Man On Bullhorn ] Please disperse!" "[ Modise ]" "I think I was just an average kid." "A bit of a loudmouth." "But I had also lost friends." "I mean, the children were being arrested all over." "Children were being shot down." "[ Gunshot ]" "I thought, in 1977," "I'd be going to medical school." "Saw myself as a little country doctor somewhere." "And all that was, you know, just blowing in my face." "So I was angry." "And I didn't believe I wanted to go back to school." "I was too angry to be a student." "After 1976, you see the songs of youth, with energy." "Youth that is dynamic." "[ Protestors Cheering, Singing ]" "[ Man ] I think these songs expressed... not just the mood, you know, but the political momentum of the time." "The more, I would say, radical the situation was becoming, the more militant many of those songs became." "[ Cheering ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ Ibrahim ] The Soweto Uprising was just starting." "At first we thought that it was very, very important... that we focus... on the mood of the people at that time." "And there was this little upright piano standing in the corner." "So we had a break, and I went over to the piano and touched it in "G"." "[ Humming ]" "But I think in the '70s, that is when some of us, particularly people of my generation, started seeing the crystallization of the struggle." "We started seeing where the struggle was going, and we started setting time frames, and we started seeing the possibility of the fall of the apartheid regime." "[ "Mannenberg" ]" "[ "Mannenberg" Continues ]" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "M.K. stands for Umkhonto we Sizwe, which translated means "the spear of the nation"." "It was the military wing of the A.N.C., which they formed in 1961... after they basically decided that... the government was not interested in negotiations-- in dialogue." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Man Narrating ] The South African security forces... believe there are at least 4,000 guerillas... under training in camps in Mozambique, Angola... and other frontline states." "The guerillas' song is about 1976, about June 16." "When Umkhonto we Sizwe was formed, you see again a change in song." "Now, the change of song... is of people in a war situation." "Those songs started, like, beginning to-- to take on those overtones-- just changing a word here, changing a word there." "When they say you are the Commissar, you are the mother of the soldiers." "You must make sure that soldiers are happy, soldiers are having enough morale, and by so doing, by [ African Dialect ], you bring lot of confidence to the soldiers." "[ Lindiwe Zulu ] Even when we were dying, the feeling was that, when people have died, if you mourn them for too long, it demoralizes your spirit." "So, as a result, even when we used to go... to bury some of our comrades who had been ambushed on the way, we never used to cry." "We used to sing." "[ Muffled Explosion ] [ People Singing ]" "And suddenly I'm just remembering... when we had to bury 26 comrades in one day." "[ Automatic Weapon Firing ] [ People Singing ]" "The bush was so thick, it wasn't easy to find comrades." "[ Singing Continues ]" "When people came back from there, they looked at the ones that were gone, and a song had to come up, a song that would call the names of those that had passed." "I'm sorry." "[ People Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "Translation, comrade." "Ahhh" "[ Speaking In African Dialect ] "We said, 'Yes,' and we departed for other lands, where our mothers and fathers don't know where we are"." ""Where they've never been"." ""Where they've never been"." "And... we are chasing after freedom". -"We agreed"." "Yeah." ""We agreed". -"We agreed to be the bearers of freedom"." "[ People Singing In African Dialect ]" "If you look at the wars... against the British and the Afrikaners, you know, 200, 300 years ago, there's a whole lot of battle songs." "And I think part of the reason why we lost the country, to a certain extent, is that before we attacked the enemy, we'd sing, and they'd know where we are." "You know?" "I don't know if you ever saw the-- the, uh, movie Zulu." "And there are these Zulus all over these mountains." "And, like, at dawn, they sang so beautifully." "There were a few British guys, but they said," ""Before we hit them, let's let them finish their song." "It's a nice song"." "[ Lindiwe Zulu ] Ingoma is the Zulu word for "song"." "And so, Ingoma Umzabalazo." "It means "the song for struggle"." "Almost every phase... of our struggle... had its own kind of songs." "[ Zulu ] So all the songs were composed... to fit in with a particular phase in the struggle." "So it would be really, really difficult... to know how many songs could have been composed." "It would be hundreds and hundreds of songs." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Man ] There's no initial arrangement... as to who starts what song." "As a song finishes, another one starts one, and in that process, there's a lot of compositions coming up-- new song altogether." "And, you know, the person might have... tried to sing what is presenting... with one or two other people during the day." "And as he leads, and the other two are backing him, you are then all drawn to follow... and-- and-- and-- and there's a song." " You've got a new song." " The songs select themselves." "You know?" "Because if people don't like a melody, or it doesn't, like, fancy them that much, they'll sing it, like, maybe for two verses, and then somebody will go:" ""Sixteen!" or Bopha, which means," ""Stop this fucking song." "It's not happening"." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Ntuli ] My favorite freedom song: "Shonamalanga"." "Shonamalanga ♪ [ Ntuli ] Shonamalanga, sho-- ♪" "[ Ntuli ] I love that song." ""Shonamalanga" really was a song... which came from domestic servants, you know?" ""Till Sheila's day"." "The origins of "Shonamalanga" is "Sheila's day"." "'Cause the darkies couldn't say-- the Zulus especially-- can't say "Thursday"." "Instead of Thursday, it's just "Shlursday,"" "which became "Sheila's day"." "Sheila's day was Thursday, when the domestics, like my mom, on their free day from the plantation-- the one day of the week when they could just chill... all over Joburg, when Joburg used to be nice, man." "On a Thursday, that place used to look like a Christmas tree." "Because why?" "The darkies are free at last." "But what happened was, in the days of exile, that song, like many others, was adapted... to the condition that we found ourselves in." "So, as opposed to saying-- [ Reciting Lyrics In Africa Dialect ]" ""We will meet on Thursday, on Sheila's Day,"" "it became, "We will meet where we would rather not meet, in the bushes with our bazookas"." "[ Singing "Shonamalanga" ]" "[ Manzini ] These songs really reached the streets of Soweto." "They reached South Africa." "Because these songs were then played by Radio Freedom, and people here listen to Radio Freedom." "And in no time, those songs were being sung in the streets of this country." "[ Song Playing Over Radio ]" "[ Teletype Machine Clacking ] [ Man ] This is Radio Freedom, the voice of the African National Congress." "So Radio Freedom was talking about all those issues... to tell the people that, okay, the struggle is there, this is the nature of the government that you are facing," "[ Rude Boy Paul ] Mm-hmm." "... and this is what you must do." "A lot of us who were young at that time... would listen to Radio Freedom, and we used to do so under the blankets." "You didn't want people who know you to know that you are listening to that." "You don't know who's who." "You could be arrested for listening to Radio Freedom." "For those that listened to Radio Freedom, they knew that the program starts with a song and closes with a song." "La la la la ♪" "So who are they who say no more love poems now ♪" "I want to sing a song of love ♪" "For that woman who jumped the fences pregnant ♪" "And still gave birth to a healthy child ♪" "La la la la La la la la ♪" "La la la la ♪" "Softly I walk ♪" "Into this embrace ♪" "Of all this fire ♪" "That will ignite in my love song ♪" "My song of life ♪" "My song of life ♪" "My song of love ♪" "My song of life ♪" "Even love songs can be struggle songs." "Because imagine a man, or a woman, who is underground... and needs to get a message across to his loved one." "It is a song of struggle." "I was about 19." "I was about 19 when I was first sent into the country." "I had specialized on information gathering." "I was also very good with explosives." "We would gather information, send it back to Lusaka for approval." "If they said, "Go ahead with the operation,"" "we'd hit whatever target we'd identified." "When I was 19, remember, that's when you start discovering life." "And, uh, at 19, that's when you think actually part of the reason we are on this world... is to discover yourself." "Yes, I-- I had an affair." "A member of my unit." "Somebody I had recruited into the unit." "[ Mahlasela ] During the time of the struggle, whatever, it was not only just, you know, struggle, struggle." "There were also people who made love." "[ African Dialect ]" "[ Modise ] Things usually would go very bad." "Even when they went bad, I thought I had survived, because I was moving around." "And finally I got arrested." "And I was, uh, four or five months pregnant then." "I had been detained at John Vorster Square." "[ Modise ] I had been interrogated." "I had been tortured." "They pull your breasts." "They stripped you naked." "They put in cameras in the cells, so they could monitor your movements from wherever they were." "Sat on the toilet, they looked at you." "They would beat me on the stomach." "And I broke my water during interrogation." "And they simply took me and dumped me in my cell, and they went off home." "Then I thought, "Well, they definitely will be finishing me off"." "And that day, I told myself, "This is it." "Might as well do it"." "And I went towards this toilet in that cell... and thought, "Well, if I try hard enough," "I could actually drown myself here"." "And as I knelt down... to-- to start doing it, the baby started kicking." "After Tsolo kicked, it was... almost an act of defiance." ""So what?" "They are threatening to kill you?" ""They could." "They can any time they want to." ""But why would you willingly go to it?" ""So they don't want you to sing?" ""Do it anyway." "You can't fight against them." "There are too many." "They are men"." "And I sang" "I think I sang anything-- everything." "And I think around 9:00 that night, my daughter was born." "When I was 18 years old, I joined the underground." "And finally, in 1976, the security police captured me with some other comrades... and put me into detent-- interrogated me, tortured me, and then I was sentenced to seven years of prison, okay?" "Because I'm a whitey, I was sent to Pretoria Maximum Security." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "People always talk about maximum and the discipline there, and you always want to go and work there, and then they transferred me to maximum." "I started there on a Monday, and that Wednesday," "I've been at my first, uh, execution." "We would get locked up at 3:30." "So night begins at 3:30 in the afternoon when you're locked up in your cell." "And then you get a chance to listen." "But slowly, slowly, as we listened, we began to realize a terrible thing." "That the prison that we were now in was the hanging prison, the prison in which they were executing people." "Start liking to work there." "There's times that you-- you-- you've got power over life." "You know, you're walking up with this guy." "He's alive." "He's well." "He's fit." "And five minutes after 7:00, he's dead." "So there's a little bit of power feeling in it." "But it was your job." "[ Men Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "Whenever somebody was told... that they didn't get the last-minute pardon, they had seven days to live." "They would start communicating." "You would hear." "I would hear." "When the desperation set in, either they would become, if they were political prisoners," "very, very political... or very religious." "Either way, there would be songs." "Everybody is singing and clapping... and stamping their feet in their cells." "One, they were psyching themselves up, preparing themselves, those who were going to go to the gallows, but those, of course, who knew that in the following weeks or months... they too would be going the same route." "[ Man Chanting ]" "I" " I don't think the regime then understood, uh, the importance and meaning of song in the struggle." "I don't think they did." "Uh" "You know, if I can go back to history, when Vuyisile Mini was hanged," "he went to the gallows singing." "He went to the gallows singing." "[ Men Singing In Distance ]" "This is where the old gallows was." "There were beams up here." "We would hear them coming down like this. [ Feet Scraping ]" "They were in leg irons." "We would hear them coming down the passage." "And you'd bring the prisoner." "He would stand like that on the footprints." "And his hands were cuffed." "And then the hangman would come." "He's got this mask on." "He would put a rope around his neck, close the mask." "And you walk up, and he will pull the lever." "And then at 7:00 we would hear a sound... which would be a bit like in a cinema when the seats go back." "Paah!" "Then everybody's quiet." ""Mini-- big, strong, smiling Mini" ""and Kayingo and Makaba, who loved life no less," ""have been robbed of their most precious possession-- life." ""'How did Mini and my brothers die..." ""in that secret hanging place?" "' you may ask." ""Please let me tell you." "I know." ""Singing?" "Yes, but how they sing." ""Big, firm Mini, not smiling on this day." ""A smile at the lips, perhaps," ""but the eyes grim, always grim..." ""when facing the enemy." ""Heads high, they walk." ""Strong." "United together." "Singing Mini's own song"." "Naants' indod' emnyama Verwoerd ♪" ""Watch out, Verwoerd." "The black man will get you." ""Watch out, Verwoerd." "The people have taken up this song." ""Watch out, Verwoerd." "The world sings with Mini"." "[ Men Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ Loud Commotion ]" "[ Dogs Barking ]" "In the '80s, every Saturday... you go two or three times to the graveyard." "uh, those who were killed by vigilantes... or the police." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing ]" "Who I am, who I am I'm the one ♪" "[ Women Ululating ]" "The '80s became the advent of what was called "The People's War"." "Africa, Africa ♪" "The kind of war strategy was train people from within." "It would be the people living within the townships... or living within the cities, already fighting." "So instead of sending a whole army, you send one or two people to kind of train people." "And I think with that came a militarization of songs." "You saw an army of South African youths... with grenades, with Makarovs, with AK-47s, and I think that's reflected a lot in the songs, because the songs had to articulate a new urgency and a new direction." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "Form the unit ♪" "And fight ♪" "Form the unit ♪" "And fight ♪" "[ Singing Continues ]" "We didn't have a weapon." "No, Toyi-Toyi, for us, is just like a weapon." "You see?" "Because we didn't have guns, we didn't have tear gas." "We didn't have all the sophisticated modern technology for war." "And then, one way or another, for us Toyi-Toyi is like a weapon of war." "It's a tool that we use in a war." "[ Man Singing, Indistinct ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ Manzini ] The Zimbabweans sang and practiced Toyi-Toyi." "And our people who were then trained there, deployed there, fought with ZAPU in Zimbabwe, when they came back into the camps, they introduced Toyi-Toyi." "[ Singing, Indistinct ]" "As you were running up and down those mountains... and training as a soldier, you would then be doing your Toyi-Toyi, you know?" "And, of course, there was no way you would not be fit with that kind of training." "[ Singing, Indistinct ] [ Cheering, Whistling ]" "It was a weapon also to fight hearts and minds." "Yeah." "And also to instill fear on the enemy." "That was the time, General, when, uh, you took the rubber guns from our-- and the shotguns" "Because you can't beat these people physically, you can scare the shit out of them with the songs." "Yeah, well, well, uh, as I said, you know, uh, you-- you can't go into a situation like this using batons." "You're gonna get people killed." "You gotta take precautions and equip them with heavy weapons." "[ De La Rosa ] It's especially tough on the youngsters, eh?" "'Cause a lot of these units, the members were very young-- 18, 19, 20 years old." "And you send them in a situation where they faced 100,000 screaming, singing, dangerous-weapon-waving crowd approaching you, and you've got to stand." "[ Chanting ]" "You can't fall back." "You've got to stand." "You've got to make a stand." "[ Chanting Continues ]" "Even for the older guys-- although most of them won't admit it-- but I can assure you that a lot of the older guys, they were also frightened stiff, I'll tell you." "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "Siyaya, Siyaya ♪" "They didn't mind that song so much, but then people would start saying," "Kubo!" "Kubo!" " like "charge"." "And then" "They said, "Hey, that Siyaya we don't mind." "This kubo comes with stones"." "Yeah." "[ Chanting ] [ Gunfire ]" "[ Singing "Shonamalanga" ]" "The Toyi-Toyi had made us even not to see the bullets... and the guns that the whites used to shoot at us." "Because even, we said, tear gas bullets wouldn't stop us." "[ Singing "Shonamalanga" ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ De La Rosa ] It actually was a war here." "We had a war here." "If you were on Khumalo Street in-in-in Katlehong, you got these electrical boxes painted "Vietnam," "War Zone,"" "and things like that, you know?" "These guys meant war there." "[ Ndlovu ] What I saw in the '80s I had never seen anywhere in my life... and I could never ever imagine." "You know, because if we had put the struggle into fifth gear, you can imagine what in the '80s they did, particularly with that Toyi-Toyi and the songs that were associated with it." "It was something else, you know?" "It gave you chills just watching it." "For me, it was irritating." "Uh, even now, seeing people singing and Toyi-Toyi-ing in the street, that's irritating." "Hoos, hoos ♪ [ Laughing ]" "Can you sing any of the songs, though?" "Hoos, hoos ♪ [ Laughing ]" "No." "That was part of the songs that they used-- that "Hoos, hoos"." "That was part of the singing." "So, but" "I remember them screaming "Amandla!"-- all that stuff." "[ Whistles Blowing ]" "In a way, it told you that South Africa was going somewhere." "You didn't know where, but, damn, this country's going somewhere, you know?" "And not all of us were entirely convinced that it was towards liberation." "It was, like, whites will wake up... and shoot everybody dead because of what was happening." "Or, I mean, I don't know." "I don't know what was gonna happen." "It was like our young people were running straight into the sea at high speed." "[ Rock ]" "Racial venom is like a social dynamite ♪" "[ Singing Continues, Indistinct ]" "This is the voice of concern ♪" "A voice of social redemption ♪" "An eye for an eye makes the world blind ♪" "Reconstitution and reconstruction ♪" "It's like a dark cloud giving way to the blue sky ♪" "Humankind must put an end to war ♪" "Or war will put an end to humankind ♪" "Africa and the world cannot afford this effigy ♪" "If something's not worth living for ♪" "It is not worth dying for ♪" "Yes, this is the voice of reason ♪" "In search of liberty eternally ♪" "[ Continues ]" "At the height of the South African madness in the '80s, we had to also do something out there wherever we were." "Others were engaging, uh, apartheid with the guns." "Others were engaging them through discussions." "Others were engaging them through song." "That's how we managed to turn... the tide of the world." "When we were thinking of Nelson Mandela, when he was still this mythical figure-- he was somewhere in jail-- we imagined them to be singing those songs... as they were longing for being back home for their freedom." "As we were singing, longing for them, we imagined them singing those same songs longing for us." "So there was a cross-purpose." "There was a connectedness just in the song." "In 1983 I was in Botswana, and I got" "It was my birthday." "And I got this birthday card from Mandela." "Here's a guy who's been in jail for 20 years, but he's writing to me, giving me encouragement." "You know, egging me on to say, "We're very proud of what you're doing,"" "and, you know, "May the gods of Africa give you strength"." ""And say hello to Deliwe," who was my niece who was staying with me," ""and to Jabu, your wife, and to George--"" "you know, all my friends." "It was like, you know, like I was in jail." "And this song just-- when I lay it down, when I finished reading it," "I just shook my head, and tears were streaming down." "And the song just came up to me." "Bring back Nelson Mandela Bring him back, oh ♪" "I didn't compose it." "It just came up." "It was like he said it." "Bring back Nelson Mandela ♪" "Bring him back home to Soweto ♪" "[ Continues, Indistinct ]" "In South Africa ♪" "Tomorrow ♪" "Bring back Nelson Mandela ♪" "Bring him back home to Soweto ♪" "The literal story in the Bible is that they came to the walls of Jericho... and they blew the trumpets, and then from blowing them, the walls fell, yeah?" "They didn't crack." "But the whole point is that that was a poetic statement... about the fact that they actually attacked the walls of Jericho." "Free Mandela, jail Botha Free Mandela, jail Botha ♪" "Free Mandela, jail Botha Free Mandela, jail Botha ♪" "Free Mandela!" "Free Mandela!" "Free Mandela!" "Free Mandela!" "Free Mandela!" "Down with apartheid!" "Down with apartheid!" "[ Hip-Hop ]" "[ Woman ] Children of Zion ♪" "Daughters and sons of the soil ♪" "People of Zion We're rising' ♪" "Amandla!" "Awethu!" "[ Singing Continues, Indistinct ]" "Children of Zion ♪" "Daughters and sons of the soil ♪" "People of Zion ♪" "We're rising', we're rising' ♪" "[ Men ] See, we come too far ♪" "See, we come too far ♪" "See, we come too far too far, too far ♪" "See, we come too far ♪" "See, we come too far ♪" "See, we come too far too far, too far ♪" "See, we ♪" "I am now in a position to announce that Mr. Nelson Mandela... will be released at the Victor Verster Prison... on Sunday, the 11th of February, at about 3:00 p.m." "When we saw our... beautiful Madiba come out of prison, and everybody was, like, glued to the TV." "[ Newscaster ] ...his first steps into a new South Africa." "I just went down on my knees in front of my TV and cried." "[ Mandela Speaking African Dialect Over P.A. ] [ Crowd Repeats Phrase ]" " [ Mandela ] Amandla!" " [ Crowd ] Awethu!" "[ Men Speaking African Dialect ]" "[ Horns Honking ] [ Cheering ]" "[ Whistling, Cheering ]" "We made it, girl!" "We made it." "We made it." "We made it." "We made it." "We made it, comrade." "[ Cheering ]" "[ Speaking, Indistinct ]" "[ Singing ]" "[ Piano ] [ Singing In African Dialect ]" "In a very general sort of sense, it talks to the fathers of the nation." "But it is about the ancestors." "And it is saying, "Let their demise--"" ""Let their destruction not be for naught." "Let their demise be for a reason"." "But more importantly it is about saying," ""It will be so," ""if we come together as a people, as a nation..." ""and remember who our ancestors are... and remember our heritage"." "I don't know my father." "I was two years old at the time he was hanged." "So today it's as if I'm seeing him for the first time and I could sense him." "[ Man Speaking In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Piano ] [ Khumalo Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ Trumpet Playing ] [ Singing Continues ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ Singing Continues ]" "[ Masekela ] And I thank the gods of Africa and my grandmother... for having, like, made it possible for me to come back." "Because there is nothing that I missed more than the people in this country." "[ Chuckles ] Didlala, you know?" "Didlala is home, you know?" "[ Makeba ] Ah, but I just love the way he dances." "He's a messiah." "Yes." "He is Solomon." "Yeah." "I thought you'd say he's Moses." "He's Moses!" "[ African ] [ Cheering, Whistling ]" "Nelson Mandela ♪ [ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Cheering ] Nelson Mandela ♪" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Continues Singing In African Dialect ]" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "Nelson Mandela ♪" "[ Continues Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ New Song Begins ]" "The revolution in South Africa... is the only revolution anywhere in the world... that was done in four-part harmony." "[ Laughs ]" "There's nowhere else in the world where they" "[ Laughing ]" "Oh, Sophie!" "Look at this." "Have you ever seen such beauty in all your life?" "[ Laughing ]" "[ Laughing ] But you were never safe." "Ne?" "No." "Ooh." "I had it tough." "I know." "Yeah." "You know my trademark was here at the back." "Oh." "I had a nice little booty, you know, when I used to move around." "The guys would say, "Dianeki." "That's mine for the day"." "[ Man Speaking On P.A. In African Dialect ]" "I was one of the first female commissars." "[ Man ] Madame Chair, I will answer that question as follows." "[ Modise ] I'm a member of parliament now." "If you push me into a corner, I hit back." "And I'm learning that in politics, that is one of my strongest points." "Be as honest as I can... and hit back with all the might." "I mean, how do you stop people from singing, you know?" "It's true." "They tried all that." "They tried to ban the songs." "They banned virtually everything." "But how do you stop people from singing?" "[ Singing In African Dialect ]" "[ Slapping Hands To A Beat ]" "We're lucky to have been able to come out of it." "But what's amazing about this nation... is that it's the only people I know... who got so much shit, you know, and didn't burn the country down." "And I think that, like, for the first time we're in a era, you know, where we're in the beginning of the good times." "One day, it'll be the good old times." "I won't be around." "But we're one country that's never been able to say-- to open our lips to say-- eh, "During the good old days"." "You know?" "Because the good old days have just begun."