by Tayo Jolaosho
This article was originally published by Smithsonian Folkways Magazine in conjunction with the Musics of Struggle program at the 1990 Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C.
Between June 27 and July 8, 1990, the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife (now called the Smithsonian Folklife Festival) featured a program on “Musics of Struggle” that brought together artists and activists from various movements across the world. Eight South African activists, forming a double quartet, met with counterparts from across the United States, Ecuador, and Ireland, among other nations. Through a series of public conversations and performances, the South African presenters elucidated the clear role music played in the struggle to end apartheid. In 1990, apartheid, an untenable system, was already unraveling—Nelson Mandela had been released from his political imprisonment on February 11th. On February 2nd, the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid organizations had been unbanned, and the De Klerk government had partially lifted a 25-year-old state of emergency. Twenty years into South Africa’s democracy, ushered in by Mandela’s 1994 election, 2014 offers opportune time for reflection. What endures of South Africa’s sung revolution?
