The music that fought for
Mandela
FILE — South Africa’s President
Nelson Mandela, is flanked by Spice Girls Melanie Brown Geri Halliwell
in South Africa in 1997. Picture: Ap
Source: News Limited
Nelson Mandela makes an appeal
that the women of Africa not continue to bear the burden of HIV-AIDS
alone at the international 46664 Aids concert in George, South Africa in
2005. AFP / RAJESH JANTILAL
Source: AFP
Nelson Mandela, and the anti-apartheid movement, inspired several
generations of musicians. Here’s a look at the most significant songs
and events sparked by his struggle for freedom.
FREE NELSON MANDELA
One of the best known protest songs, this was a chart hit in 1984.
Written by Jerry Dammers and performed by his band the Special AKA, it
was produced by Elvis Costello. Dammers was inspired after going to an
anti-apartheid concert in 1983. The lyrics include the lines “Twenty-one
years in captivity, his shoes too small to fit his feet, his body
abused but his mind is still free.” It was reworked for Mandela’s 70th
birthday in 1988 and Amy Winehouse performed the song with Dammers at
Mandela’s 90th birthday tribute concert in London in 2008. Queen’s Brian
May played guitar, at one stage Winehouse sang ‘Free Blakey my fella’
instead of the chorus in reference to her incarcerated husband.
MANDELA – BRING HIM BACK HOME
Hugh Masekela is a South African trumpet player who wrote music about
the violence and racism he saw created by apartheid. He released
Mandela – Bring Him Back Home in 1987 with lyrics including ” I want to
see him walking down the streets of South Africa tomorrow, I want to see
him walking hand in hand with Winnie Mandela.”
46664 CONCERTS
Named after Mandela’s prisoner number, there have been several
46664
concerts including one in Cape Town in 2003 with Bono and the Edge,
Eurythmics, Robert Plant, Peter Gabriel, Queen, Ladysmith Black Mambazo
and more. It spawned a live album and DVD. The Spice Girls were expected
to reform at a 46664 concert in 2008 but instead Geri Halliwell was one
of the many celebrities to make an appearance on stage in Hyde Park.
The Spice Girls met Mandela in 1997 where Halliwell told him “You’re not
old, you’re as young as the girl you feel and I’m 25.”
ORDINARY LOVE
BRAND new U2 song written for inclusion in the Mandela: Long Walk to
Fame biopic starring Idris Alba as Mandela. They also released Silver
and Gold in 1988, inspired by the apartheid regime. Bono had been part
of Little 1985 Artists United Against Apartheid collaboration, which
brought attention to the racist policy in South Africa with the song (I
Ain’t Gonna Play) Sun City.
GIMME HOPE JO’ANNA
Eddy Grant released this reggae song in 1988, but it was banned by
the South African government. The title refers to Johannesburg and the
lyrics have references to politics, sneaking across borders and
anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu. One verse runs “I hear she make
all the golden money to buy new weapons, any shape of guns, while every
mother in black Soweto fears the killing of another son.”
