South African Popular Music

There are moments in time when music can be a mighty weapon in the fight for freedom. Disguised in a danceable hook or shouted for the world to hear, artists have used songs to deliver important truths and bring listeners together in the face of a segregated reality.

In the grip of the brutal apartheid era, South Africa crafted its own idiosyncratic popular musical vernacular that operated both as a sociopolitical tool and a realm of escape. In a country with 11 official languages, music had the power to unite South Africans in protest. Artists bloomed a new idyll from the branches of countless storied musical traditions, and in turn, found themselves banned or exiled from the profound epiphany that music can exist both within the pleasure of itself and for serving a far greater purpose.