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Jonathan Paul Clegg, (7 June 195316 July 2019) was a South African musician, singer-songwriter, dancer, anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist.
He first performed as part of a duo - Johnny & Sipho - with Sipho Mchunu which released its first single, "Woza Friday" in 1976. The two then went on to form the band Juluka which released its debut album in 1979. In 1986, Clegg founded the band Savuka, and also recorded as a solo act, occasionally reuniting with his earlier band partners. Sometimes called Le Zoulou Blanc (, for "The White Zulu people"), he was an important figure in South African popular music and a prominent white figure in the resistance to apartheid, becoming for a period the subject of investigation by the security branch of the South African Police. His songs mixed English with Zulu language lyrics, and also combined working class African music with various forms of Western popular music.
He grew up in Yeoville, then a predominantly Jewish inner city neighbourhood of Johannesburg. Remembering the Jewish ‘white Zulu’ South African Jewish Report. 18 July 2019 He encountered the demi-monde of the city's Zulu migrant workers' music and dance. Under the tutelage of Charlie Mzila, a flat cleaner by day and musician by night, Clegg mastered both the Zulu language and the maskandi guitar and the isishameni dance styles of the migrants. Clegg's involvement with black musicians often led to arrests for trespassing on government property and for contravening the Group Areas Act. He was first arrested at the age of 15 for violating apartheid-era laws in South Africa banning people of different races from congregating together after curfew hours.
At the age of 16, he met Sipho Mchunu, a Zulu migrant worker with whom he began performing music. The partnership, which they named Juluka, began in 1969, and was profiled in the 1970s television documentary Beats of the Heart: Rhythm of Resistance. (Originally released in 1979).
After graduating with a BA (Hons) in Social Anthropology from the University of Witwatersrand, Clegg pursued an academic career for four years where he lectured and wrote several seminal scholarly papers on Zulu music and dance. In the early stages of his musical career, Clegg combined his music with the study of anthropology at Wits, where he was influenced by the work of David Webster, a social anthropologist who was later assassinated in 1989.
He preceded each song with snippets of Zulu culture, information, commentary, humor and personal anecdotes relevant and unique to that song, occasionally also incorporating aspects of his Jewish roots in songs such as "Jericho", "Jarusalema" and "Warsaw 1943".
Just as unusually, the band's music combined Zulu, Celtic, and rock elements, with both English and Zulu language lyrics. Those lyrics often contained coded political messages and references to the battle against apartheid, although Clegg maintained that Juluka was not originally intended to be a political band. "Politics found us," he told The Baltimore Sun in 1996. In a 1989 interview with the Sunday Times, Clegg denied the label of "political activist." "For me a political activist is someone who has committed himself to a particular ideology. I don’t belong to any political party. I stand for human rights."Jani Allan. Vive le Zoulou Blanc! That’s how the French laud Johnny and make him top of their pops. Sunday Times (South Africa). 3 July 1988
Juluka's music was both implicitly and explicitly political; not only was the fact of the success of the band (which openly celebrated African culture in a bi-racial band) a thorn in the flesh of a political system based on racial separation, the band also produced some explicitly political songs. For example, the album Work for All (which includes a song with the same title) picked up on South African trade union slogans in the mid-1980s. As a result of their political messages and racial integration, Clegg and other band members were arrested several times and concerts routinely broken up.
Despite being ignored and often harassed by the South African government at home, Juluka were able to tour internationally, playing in Europe, Canada, and the United States, and had two platinum album and five , becoming an international success. The group was disbanded in 1985, when Mchunu retired from music and went back to his family farm to return to his people's traditional life of raising cattle. It was briefly reconstituted when Mchunu and Clegg reunited in the mid-1990s, releasing Crocodile Love in 1997 before breaking up for good.
During one concert in 1999, he was joined on stage by South African President Nelson Mandela, who danced as Johnny Clegg sang the protest song "Asimbonanga" that Savuka had dedicated to Mandela. Asimbonanga became an anthem of protest for the Mass Democratic Movement's umbrella organisation, the United Democratic Front. During Mandela's illness and death in 2013, the video of the concert attracted considerable media attention outside South Africa.
His touring schedule was abbreviated in 2017 after he underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer, and Clegg performed his last concert in Harare, Zimbabwe on 3 November 2018..
His song "Life is a Magic Thing" was featured in .
Savuka's song "Dela" was featured on the soundtrack of the 1997 film George of the Jungle and its 2003 sequel, while "Great Heart" was the title song for the 1986 film Jock of the Bushveld and the end credits song for the 2000 film . "Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World" was featured in the 1990 film Opportunity Knocks and 1991 film Career Opportunities.
Jimmy Buffett recorded "Great Heart" for his 1988 album, Hot Water.
In 2018, during Clegg's illness, over 50 South African musicians collaborated to record Clegg's song "The Crossing" as a tribute to Clegg and his contribution to South African music. The song was originally written by Clegg in memory of bandmate Dudu Zulu who was killed in 1992, and refers to the crossing from life to death.
Juluka
Juluka was an unusual musical partnership for the time in South Africa, with a white man (Clegg) and a black man (Mchunu) performing together. The band, which grew to a six-member group (with three white musicians and three black musicians) by the time it released its first album Universal Men in 1979, faced harassment and censorship, with Clegg later remarking that it was "impossible" to perform in public in South Africa. The group tested the apartheid-era laws, touring and performing in private venues, including universities, churches, hostels, and even private homes in order to attract an audience, as national broadcasters would not play their music.
Savuka
Together with the black musician and dancer Dudu Zulu, Clegg went on to form his second inter-racial band, Savuka, in 1986, continuing to blend African music with European influences. The group's first album, Third World Child, broke international sales records in several European countries, including France. The band went on to record several more albums, including Heat, Dust and Dreams, which received a Grammy Award nomination. Johnny Clegg and Savuka played both at home and abroad, even though Clegg's refusal to stop performing in apartheid-era South Africa created tensions with the international anti-apartheid movement. Despite his high-profile (and personally hazardous) opposition to the South African regime, this led to Clegg's expulsion from the British Musicians' Union, in what one writer has since called "a fit of resentment". In one instance, the band drew such a large crowd in Lyon that Michael Jackson cancelled a concert there, complaining that Clegg and his group had "stolen all his fans". In 1993, the band dissolved after Dudu Zulu was shot and killed while attempting to mediate a taxi war.
Juluka reunion and solo career
Briefly reunited in the mid-1990s, Clegg and Mchunu reformed Juluka, released Crocodile Love, and toured throughout the world in 1996 with King Sunny Adé. In the following years, Clegg recorded several solo albums.
In popular culture
Clegg's song "Scatterlings of Africa" gave him his only entries in the UK Singles Chart, reaching No. 44 in February 1983 with Juluka and No. 75 in May 1987 as Johnny Clegg and Savuka. The following year the song was featured on the soundtrack to the 1988 Academy Award-winning film Rain Man.
Recognition
Illness and death
Johnny Clegg was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015, which ultimately led to his death on 16 July 2019. He died in his Johannesburg home surrounded by loved ones and was laid to rest the following day in Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg. Clegg was survived by his wife, Jenny, and his two sons, Jesse Clegg (also a musician) and Jaron.
Works
Academic publications
Jonathan Clegg (1981). 9780854946440, Ravan Press (in association with The African Studies Institute). ISBN 9780854946440
Autobiography
(2025). 9781770107588, Pan Macmillian. ISBN 9781770107588
Discography
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Savuka
Solo
Compilation
DVD
External links
Categories: Official, 1953 Births, 2019 Deaths, Jewish South African Anti-apartheid Activists, White South African Anti-apartheid Activists, South African Anti-apartheid Activists, British Emigrants To Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesian Emigrants To South Africa, Capitol Records Artists, Concertina Players, Jewish English Musicians, People From Bacup, Officers Of The Order Of The British Empire, Recipients Of The Order Of Ikhamanga, South African Anthropologists, South African Musicians, South African Secular Jews, English Emigrants To South Africa, South African People Of English-jewish Descent, South African People Of Lithuanian-jewish Descent, South African People Of Polish-jewish Descent, South African People Of Scottish Descent, South African People Of Zimbabwean Descent, South African Pop Singers, South African Dancers, English-language Singers From South Africa, University Of The Witwatersrand Alumni, Juluka Members, Savuka Members, Jewish Singers, Deaths From Pancreatic Cancer In South Africa, English People Of Polish-jewish Descent, English People Of Lithuanian-jewish Descent, English People Of Scottish Descent, English People Of Zimbabwean Descent, Burials At Westpark Cemetery, Maskanda Musicians
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