The Revolution Is a Song!

In many parts of Africa, particularly Southern Africa, music played an important in the struggle for liberation from colonizers. Music and song served as inspiration and provided a potent tool to mobilize society to resist, and fight against colonial administrations. This was mainly between the 1960s and 1980s when many African countries gained political independence. It is from this context that in 2009, when renowned South African artist and activist, Hugh Masekela,  chanted in Lugano, Switzerland, at a concert, ‘…I don’t know what happened to us the human beings, we seem to have lost our sense of outrage that we had in the 60s and 70s and now, we just look at our laptops and shake our heads,’ one can’t help but reflect on the importance, significance and purpose of music and song in the struggle for liberation and freedom.

Music can serve to inspire, motivate and provoke consciousness where people have been downtrodden and where they struggle to find a voice. The intensity of many forms of oppression is such that a people easily lose their consciousness. Music and song will not in and of themselves bring freedom. They are not a substitute for mobilization to fight for freedom, but only serve to cultivate a ready ground. When Bob Marley sang, ‘Get Up, Stand Up’, (Burnin’, 1973), the message was to provoke consciousness for action, and that it is not enough to just sit by and wallow, paralysed by inaction.