#Sowetan40xNetflix | Year 1976 ushered in another revolt on air, stage and screen

There is an almost eerie air of irony in how the year 1976 is associated with the revolt of SA youth and happens to be the same year television made its advent in the country. It was as if an era had placed a mirror in SA’s living rooms and muttered, “look at yourself”.

With the Soweto Uprising rose a mighty storm of an ebony dust of SA entertainers; there was a kind of collective black consciousness that inhabited the streets and airwaves alike locally and abroad.

In this year, Letta Mbulu and Caiphus Semenya were in the US working on the soundtrack of the multi-award winning drama series Roots with Quincy Jones. Hugh Masekela released Colonial Man under the US’s Casablanca Records, and wrote Soweto Blues in response to the uprising. The song was performed by Miriam Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances.

Back home, an unlikely duo – a black Sipho Mchunu and a white Johnny Clegg – was whisking dust in the eyes of apartheid having formed the band Juluka, and leaving segregated communities dripping in sweat, whether it be out of the exasperation or fear of the illegality of this band, or the dancing to their 1976 hit single Woza Friday.

Gibson Kente had just completed filming his banned play, How Long? and was consequently jailed. Theatre duo Winston Ntshona and John Kani were back from the US and touring SA townships with Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island, which led to their arrest.

Joe Mafela was establishing himself as a cogent conduit for social cohesion, not only taking up space as a black television actor but also creating it for blackness to have a voice in that living room mirror.

The 1970s were an age that served as a tipping point of black youth rage, and also as a precursor to what was to become the decade that was the playground of a plethora of perennial legends of SA entertainment, the 1980s.

Mobility and international dominance

SA social media was ablaze when a picture of Beyoncé fist-bumping Trevor Noah at the NBA playoffs made its rounds. Even SA media caught wind of this and made it breaking news. This is a similar flame we ran with when Thuso Mbedu was in conversation with Oprah Winfrey, and when SA musicians were featured in Black is King. This is an Olympics-like-flame that we relay from one excitement to another whenever one of our own is seen having anything that may resemble international success.

However international acclaim is no new phenomenon to SA artists. Makeba, celebrated as Mama Africa, was one such artist. Having nailed an incisive cameo in the 1959 anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, she caught international attention, which led to performances in Venice, London and New York City, where she settled and launched her global fame.

As a result of the politics in her music, Makeba was not allowed back into the country, serving more than 30 years in exile.

Makeba went from bagging nine Grammy nominations to performing at President John F Kennedy’s birthday party in Madison Square Garden alongside Marilyn Monroe in 1962, to eventually scoring a Grammy win for Best Folk Recording in 1965.

She went on freedom tours around Africa – from Kenya to Mozambique, Zambia and Angola as they gained their independence. It was during these tours that she was crowned “Mama Africa”.

A fellow South African, one who Makeba had travelled with on a SA tour of the musical King Kong in 1959, was to be named the King of African Jazz. Bra Hugh Masekela also found himself locked out of his country, and making New York City his base, a banishment that lasted for 30 years.

In 1968, now California-based, Masekela released a smash single, Grazing in the Grass, topping US charts for three weeks, selling more than 4m copies, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, ranking it as the 18th biggest hit of the year.

In 1980, Masekela settled in Botswana as home until his ultimate return to SA. He released five albums from ’82 to ’87; the decade was spent in performances around the world, the prominent being the world tour with Paul Simon promoting the massively successful, Graceland. In 1985, Masekela founded the Botswana International School of Music, a legacy that lives on beyond his death.

Masekela and Makeba were friends from the '50s, got married and divorced in the '60s, toured together and remained friends until Makeba's  death – a remarkable friendship.

There is a similar kind of formidable friendship worth mention, one that lives between the beautiful power couple, Mbulu and Semenya; the mzukwana Jay Z and Beyoncé as it were.

The legendary couple met in ’59, and left together for LA, already married, in ’65. While in exile their careers experienced exceptional global stardom; in ’76 they tag-teamed on Mbulu’s classic album There’s Music In The Air, and in the same year were heard on the Roots soundtrack, both projects having Semenya on pen and co-production, and Mbulu on vocals.

This combination continued all the way through The Colour Purple (’85), in which Semenya was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score, and a feature on Michael Jackson’s Liberian Girl.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo, founded by Joseph Shabalala in 1960, is the epitome of family and brotherhood. The group has been in existence for over six decades, and there isn’t a music-loving ear that the name Ladysmith Black Mambazo hasn’t touched the lobe thereof.

By ’86 they had featured in Paul Simon’s Graceland, recorded in London and performed in New York City on Saturday Night Live.

Their first US release album, Shaka Zulu (’87), won the much-coveted Grammy Award, the first of five to date, amidst 16 nominations, with an additional one Emmy and one Oscar nomination. Since this album Ladysmith Mambazo has recorded over 50 albums, many of which have received gold- and/or platinum-disc certification.

World alive with hope | Dance and song on global stage

In ’88 they made a feature in the Sesame Street song Put Down the Duckie as well as The African Alphabet, appeared in Michael Jackson’s movie Moonwalker on the end credits, and sang Mbube during the opening sequence of the Eddie Murphy movie Coming to America. The latter gives a sense of 360 degrees with Nomzamo Mbatha’s feature in Coming 2 America.

There is another sort of transcending “local”, that of not necessarily “making it” in the US, but resonating with the diaspora – this was the transcendence of SA’s Reggae King, Lucky Dube.

Dube began his career as a mbaqanga artist, releasing his first album in 1981 and peaking at about 30,000 copies a record. It wasn’t until 1984 that he followed his destined sound, reggae music, which started as an epic fail.

A year later after countless live performance he found his sound, wrote and produced, Think About The Children (1985), his second album, which blessed him with a platinum sales status, elevating him to national and international popularity.

Ndebele artist Esther Mahlangu worked as a resident at the Botshabelo open-air museum from 1980 and 1991. In 1989 she gained international attention at a European art exposition titled Magiciens de la terre (Magicians of the World).

She was commissioned in 1991 by BMW to create an art car, as other BMW Art Car creators had done before (including Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Frank Stella), and through the years went on to become one of the most recognised artists in the world

Ntshona and Kani, working with Athol Fugard went on tour in the United States in 1974, with Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island. On Broadway, they achieved international recognition when they were awarded a Tony for their performances in both plays.

Ntshona’s later success in New York led to a series of film roles in the 1980s and 1990s. His most substantial film role came in 1989 in A Dry White Season, alongside Hollywood veteran Donald Sutherland.

Once Kani returned to SA In 1977, he worked with Barney Simon and the new Market Theatre in Johannesburg, the beginning of a long association that was fruitful through the '80s. This led to the establishment of the Market Theatre Laboratory, by Kani and Simon in 1990, to provide training to young aspiring thespians from less fortunate backgrounds.

Another one of SA landmarks that worked with Fugard at the start of his career is Ken Gampu, one of the first black South Africans to be featured in Hollywood films, working alongside stars as Edward G. Robinson and Burt Lancaster. Gampu played lead in Joe Bullet (1973), the first SA film to have an all-black cast, to appeal to black audiences. It was banned by the government on the basis that it may influence the aspirations of black South Africans.

There is yet another duo in theatre that left an immutable mark – young performers who where touring in Kente’s company in ’79. Together they workshopped what was to become one of SAs defining theatre productions, Woza Albert!.  Percy Mtwa and Mbongeni Ngema started writing the play in 1981 and staged it for the first time at The Market Theatre two years later. The play toured Europe and the US with great success.

The ovation of Woza Albert! aided in ushering the prevalence of Mtwa’s masterpiece, Bopha! and Ngema’s vanguard, Sarafina!, both of which were initially staged in 1987.

While our global legends were flying the SA flag high in the world, there were artists back at home who held it down.

Kente venerated as the Father of Black Theatre in SA, trained an entire generation of black SA performers, through G. K. Productions that he founded in the 1960s.

In 1963, Kente produced his first play, Manana,The Jazz Prophet, which featured Semenya and Mbulu. Along the years he wrote music for the likes of Mbulu and Makeba. Kente’s legacy lives on not only through his timeless productions but also the entertainers that he impacted; among his students were Ngema, Mtwa, Nomsa Nene, and Brenda Fassie.

One of the most celebrated star students in Kente’s class has to be, Madonna of the Townships, The Black Madonna, The Queen of African Pop – Brenda Fassie.

Fassie released 24 albums in her lifetime, 10 of which are between 1983 and 1989 (six with The Big Dudes), and left the country with record-breaking classics.

Weekend Special (’83) achieved multi-platinum status sales in excess of 200,000 copies as the fastest selling single of that year.

Fassie was dubbed “The Madonna of the Townships” by Time magazine in 2001; her accessibility to the township and SA as a whole was unmatched.

On the ground with the masses was also The Princess of Africa, Yvonne Chaka Chaka. Her career as a singer started in 1984, selling platinum on her debut album I’m in Love with a DJ. She then released the equally successful second album, Thank you Mr. DJ, in 1986 and in 1987 she released I’m Burning Up.

Chaka Chaka has been at the forefront of SA popular music for over 27 years and remains popular across Africa. In 2006, she started her foundation called Princess of Africa (a name she received after a 1990 tour in Uganda), which focuses on championing the change in health and education for communities across Africa and South America.

The '80s launched an array of artists who were deemed royalty, a household favourite across generations being The African Queen of Gospel, Rebecca Malope.

‘For 40 years Sowetan has captured the rhythm of SA entertainment in the lives and times of our st a rs. On this milestone anniversary, we partner with Netflix to take you down memory lane, to celebrate decades of t a le nt and to showcase future of SA arts.’

—  Nwabisa Makunga

She released two platinum selling albums Woza Lovey (’88) and Thank You Very Much (’89), which had one or two gospel songs that had better reception than the rest. It wasn’t until 1992 that she released her first full gospel album, to become one of the biggest gospel figures in African music.

Malope has sold at least 10m albums worldwide, making her one of the biggest-selling gospel artists of all time.

Seeing beyond the present was the grand feat of music virtuoso, Steve Kekana. Having lost his sight at the age of five, Kekana was in no way hindered. He released the most albums of the ’80s decade with a catalogue of 22 releases from 1980 to 1989. He enjoyed incredible success in the music industry with over 70 Golden Disc Awards to date.

There was another musician, who when experienced their music without the sight of race, one would swear the music came from a spirit of a black man, The White Zulu, Johnny Clegg.

At age 17 Clegg partnered with Mchunu and formed the band Juluka in 1969, the band, which grew to a six-member group released its first album Universal Men in 1979.

Juluka experienced great success but eventually disbanded, and Clegg started another inter-racial band, Savuka with musician and dancer Dudu Zulu.

The group's first album, Third World Child, broke international sales records in several European countries. The band went on to record several more albums, including Heat, Dust and Dreams, which received a Grammy nomination.

Solo success succeeding the ending of a band, was singer and songwriter Sipho “Hotstix" Mabuse. Mabuse was a member of Harari, “the middle name in cool soul”, a stylish and sophisticated band originally known as The Beaters formed in the late 1960s.

Mabuse went on his solo career and released the classic, Burn Out in the early 1980s, which sold over 500,000 copies, and the giant (Disco Shangaan) hit of the late 1980s Jive Soweto.

The stars of the 80s displayed a great strength of personality and temperament.

A stout example is Thembi Nyandeni, a dancer for Ipi Ntombi (1974). With a career that is more than 40 years old, Nyandeni travelled the globe as a dancer and at her return home forged a new era of strong female roles on SA television, first in Kwakhala Nyonini in the ’80s, all the way to  Isibaya

There is a paradigm shift that comes with knowing details such as the fact that Joe Mafela was not just an actor but also an immaculate entrepreneur and all-round creative, having been the co-founder of Penguin Films, and the first black creative director in SA advertising; he conceptualised and wrote the initial copy for the early Chicken Licken television commercials.

That SA living room mirror went beyond television, but is now on computer monitors, and mobile devices; ours, is to look at all the black history we can have the time to intake, and to ourselves utter, “look at yourself, you have been beautiful”.