Remembering Sharpeville: 21 Human Rights songs

This week we remember the victims of the Sharpeville Massacre which took place on the 21st March 1960. 69 protesters were killed and 189 injured by the apartheid police, in response to a gathering of approximately 7000 people who assembled at a Sharpeville police station to protest the government’s heinous pass law policy. In South Africa the 21st of March is honoured as Human Rights Day and is a public holiday. For this mixtape we have put together 21 songs which remember human rights abuses, Sharpeville in particular, and which call for (equal) human rights.

We begin with Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Get Up! Stand Up!” which has become an anthem for human rights all over the world, often sung at political concerts with a human rights focus.

Several of the tracks included here refer directly to Sharpeville (sometimes spelt without the ‘e’): Hugh Masekela, Mario Pavone, Big T Commemoration Band, Ewan Maccoll and Peggy Seeger, Black Savage, and Karl Hektor and the Malcouns all recorded pieces which pay direct tribute to the victims at Sharpeville.

The Brixton Moord En Roof Orkes’s “Die Geraamtes In Jou Kas” (“The Skeletons In Your Closet”) and Bester Meyer’s “Die Kind” (“The Child”, based on the famous Ingrid Jonker poem) refer to Sharpeville within the context of the widespread injustices of the apartheid regime.

Miriam Makeba’s “Nonquonqo” (Beware Verwoerd) and Letta Mbulu’s “Nonquonqo” both capture the anti-apartheid government protest sentiments of the post-Sharpeville period. While the former warns Verwoerd’s government of Black protest, the latter grieves the imprisonment of political prisoners after the repressive government’s clampdown in the 1960s.

Juluka’s “Mama Shabalala” and Bob Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll” remind us how human rights abuses often take place on an individual level, even while we generally think of human rights abuse on a larger scale. Both songs consider the plight of individuals within an oppressive system, the former a fictional case in South Africa, the latter an actual incident from the United States.

Indeed, human rights abuses occur globally, and the mixtape also focuses on human rights abuses more broadly. Billie Holiday’s iconic “Strange Fruit” laments the lynching of black people in the southern states of the United States, while U2’s “Mothers Of The Disappeared” and Sting’s “They Dance Alone” are tributes to the mothers and partners of victims of government repression in Central and South American countries. The victims had been arrested, killed and ‘disappeared’. U2’s song refers to the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, a group of mothers whose children had ‘disappeared’ at the hands of Chilean and Argentinian dictatorships, and to the Comadres, a similar group in El Salvador. Sting’s “They Dance Alone” is dedicated to women related to the ‘disappeared’ in Chile, referring to the way the women danced the Cueca (the national dance) alone, while holding photographs of their loved ones. Both U2 and Sting were inspired to write these songs because of their work with the Human Rights organization, Amnesty. Another artist who has worked closely with Amnesty is Peter Gabriel, who wrote “Wallflower” as a tribute to political prisoners around the world. Gabriel’s chilling words are both a tribute to political detainees and a reminder of the human rights abuses carried against them:

Hold on, you have gambled with your own life
You faced the night alone
While the builders of the cages
Sleep with bullets, bars and stone
They do not see the road to freedom
That you build with flesh and bone

Though you may disappear, you’re not forgotten here
And I will say to you, I will do what I can do

The mixtape ends with four songs which advocate human rights in one way or another: by Rhiannon Giddens’ version of “Freedom Highway”, Daweh Congo’s “Human Rights And Justice”, “Equal Rights” by Peter Tosh and finally, Laurel Aitken’s interpretation of the USA folk protest song, “We Shall Overcome”.
As we listen to this selection, we are reminded of music’s capacity to mourn and document human rights abuses, and its ability to capture emotional sentiments which in turn can draw people together as they fight against repressive governments the world over.

  1. Get Up! Stand Up! – Bob Marley & The Wailers
  2. Sharpville – Hugh Masekela
  3. Sharpeville – Mario Pavone
  4. Tears For Sharpeville – Big T Commemoration Band Featuring Vuyelwa Luzipo
  5. Strange Fruit – Billie Holiday
  6. The Ballad Of Sharpeville – Ewan Maccoll And Peggy Seeger
  7. Ndodemnyama – Miriam Makeba And Harry Belafonte
  8. Nonquonqo – Letta Mbulu
  9. Mama Shabalala – Juluka
  10. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll – Bob Dylan
  11. Sharpeville – Black Savage
  12. Sharpville Massacre – Karl Hector & The Malcouns
  13. Die Kind – Bester Meyer
  14. Die Geraamtes In Jou Kas – Brixton Moord En Roof Orkes
  15. They Dance Alone – Sting
  16. Mothers Of The Disappeared – U2
  17. Wallflower – Peter Gabriel
  18. Freedom Highway – Rhiannon Giddens
  19. Human Rights And Justice – Daweh Congo
  20. Equal Rights – Peter Tosh
  21. We Shall Overcome – Laurel Aitken

The cover art features an extract of a painting depicting the Sharpeville massacre by Godfrey Rubens which hangs in the South African Consulate in London.

More Music from Makhanda

In our previous mixtape we featured music by musicians who at some point or other have lived in Grahamstown/Makhanda. This time around we focus on songs about Grahamstown, some of which are performed by musicians included in that mixtape. All the songs included here were recorded before Grahamstown became Makhanda, and so we stick with that name when mentioning the place the musicians refer to. Most of the songs (some of them instrumentals) refer to the town in general, including several which are named after the town itself.

Two of the instrumental pieces – David Goldblum’s “New Street” and Nishlyn Ramanna’s “Oatland Road Blues” evidently refer to Grahamstown street names while two of the songs –Barry Gilder’s “Makhanda’s Song” and Roger Lucey’s “You Only Need Say Nothing” relate to the political history of the town. Gilder’s song explores the story of Makhanda himself while Roger Lucey’s song touches on various aspects of the struggle around apartheid, including the fact that Peter Jones was detained in Grahamstown after he and Steve Biko were arrested at a roadblock outside the town in 1977.

The Fishwives and Daniel Friedman (Deep Fried Man) sing lighter songs. “Pied Piper” by the Fishwives refers to a Pied Piper leading rats to a gathering in Grahamstown, while “Stay in Grahamstown” by Daniel Friedman is a satirical consideration about people who settle in Grahamstown too long. It pokes fun at white liberal fears and the ruts that settle in when one stays in Grahamstown too long.

Two of the songs – Lucy Kruger’s “Heart of Stone” and Tim Hopwood and Joe van den Linden’s “Scattered” – do no refer overtly to Grahamstown/Makhanda but were written about the musicians’ personal experiences in Grahamstown, both about leaving, manifestly having taken heed of the warning not to stay in Grahamstown too long.

We don’t want to say too much about the songs featured here, as we want to leave it to you to listen to and explore reflections on the town as these musicians would want you to. Enjoy!

  1. Umsakazo E Grahamstown – Alabhama Kids
  2. G-Town – Eddy De Clerq, Yemu Matibe & Alungile Sixishe
  3. Grahamstown – Zulublue
  4. Pied Piper – Fishwives
  5. Grahamstown – Carl Allen And Rodney Whittaker
  6. Settler Country – Larry Strelitz
  7. Grahamstown Fever – The Sighs Of Monsters
  8. Lekker Sakkie – Hot Water
  9. Stay In Grahamstown – Daniel Friedman
  10. Grahamstown – Decio Gioielli
  11. New Street – David Goldblum
  12. Grahamstown – Philip Malan & Ronan Skillen
  13. Oatlands Road Blues – Nishlyn Ramanna
  14. Grahamstown – Eric Van Der Western And Louis Mahlanga
  15. You Only Need Say Nothing – Roger Lucey
  16. Pondo Fever – Matt Vend & The Tender Ten
  17. Heart Of Stone – Lucy Kruger
  18. Scattered – Tim Hopwood & Joe Van Den Linden
  19. Makhanda’s Song – Barry Gilder