Due to the apartheid-government’s former oppressive power over South Africa, many plot holes can

be found in the tale of South African jazz. The government indoctrinated ideologies that stood
against the worth and humanity of non-white people at the time. That may have led to many people
academic positions having biases against the possibility that non-whites could create anything with
artistic or intellectual value. During the 1950’s and surrounding years, the intellectual and artistic
output of non-white people were therefore deemed as only tending to more primitive urges such as
dancing, and not being generated out of thought, but thoughtless emotions alone. The way that time
signatures could seamlessly change through the course of a tune and the presence of slight micro
tonality in certain more traditional South African musics were dismissed simply as absent minded
mistakes, completely ignoring the expressive and freeing effect that these elements gave to the
music in that it in that it did not adhere to as many limitations as western-oriented music. This mind
set carried over to when bebop influenced-jazz started appearing in the early 1950’s.
The South African jazz world seemed to have always been on the run. The main chasers in this case
were government censorship, the apartheid ideology and more directly the police. In 1952 a law
was passed that required all black south africans to carry around a pass in order to exist. This meant
that the brutal police force had yet another reason to be on the cases of black people. This meant
that musical gatherings were always accompanied by the police. It also caused difficulties for
touring musicians who were at great risk of being apprehended. An entire style of music was named
after the term used to warn others of police presence: ‘Kwela’.
Because of the government’s presence and ability to silence those with artistic output, certain
productions such as King Kong, had to refrain from speaking against apartheid or even
incorporating too many traditional African musical ideas into the overall American 1920’s swing
sound. Ironically they received criticism for how little the musical speaks to apartheid when it
played in London.

Questions:

Directed to Abdullah Ibrahim who went into exile: Do you feel that you have been granted a greater
voice and ability to reach and influence others by staying in England and how so? What are some of
the emotional challenges you had to face by living in exile; did you have trouble making peace with
certain detachments? If you had not been forced to live in exile, would you rather have continued to
live the rest of your life out in SA?

Directed to Allen Kwela who stayed in SA: What advantages and disadvantages do you think you
had as a musician in South Africa as opposed to the musicians who had to make livings in exile?
Which problems that you’ve had as a black jazz musician in South Africa were not resolved after
the end of apartheid?

Most pressing issue for South African musicians today:

The following does not only apply to jazz: The abundance of information that the internet has made
available gives every human access to that which is most popular according to especially US media.
We have access to the ‘best’ music according to world wide standards and that easily overshadows
that which is or could be popular in South Africa. Our radio stations are evenm more abundant with
international hits except certain stations that specialise in local music. Many young people are
unaware of the sounds or even the existence of local genres. Most popular music from south africa
are merely imitations of american of european music. With most of the musical influence coming
from overseas, it is difficult for local music to take that much inspiration from each other in order
for new local styles to exist. The international music that spawned certain sounds will almost
always overshadow that which tries to copy those sounds.