Reminiscing apartheid in relation to artistic influences would amount to an inaccurate recollection if it did not pay homage to Philip Lucky Dube, the times greatest reggae icon not only in South Africa but the entire African continent. The streams of consciousness aroused by the music produced by Lucky Dube are colossal.
I cannot help but admire the music aesthetics that he exhibited in his career spanning decades. His songs were generally filled with themes of social justice at a time when apartheid was enshrined in the social fabric and political architecture of South Africa. Lucky Dube was born in 1964. He was raised by his mother alone owing to the separation from his father. His mother had suffered a series of miscarriages prior to the birth of Dube, hence, the name Lucky. As modernity would have it, his mother had to work and therefore there was another separation from the only family and thus Lucky, a child of luck, grew in the company of his grandmother. He joined school, became part of the choir and eventually with his friends formed the Sky Band. From here he forged his way to the music industry and used it as a chance for activism. According to him, inspiration for his music was majorly influenced by Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae legends and Rastafarians. However, his first album was banned by the apartheid regime as they found it instigative.
The second and preceding albums were received well not only in the apartheid South Africa but the world and this saw him win a number of awards. The familial concerns sung in his music made his songs centric to the basic unit of social life. Family is a complicated entity. Socially, the issues articulated by his songs touch primarily on the family, citing circular implications thereof. Ranging from poor parenting, absentee fatherhood, marriage, folly of the youth, general family storms to alcoholism and religious beliefs and freedoms, these are fronted with a family man perspective. The family is at the centre of a number of significant songs by Lucky Dube. This especially surrounds the surreal confinement of single parenting intricacies. Songs like Hold On amongst others are a deliberate attempt to emancipate the woman in an abusive, bothersome relationship. The world budding career sought to address, but not limited to, the identity crisis that bedeviled the black society in South Africa and by extension the continent and beyond. In full knowledge of the political and cultural implications of the music of music, Lucky Dube richly contributed to advocacy of anti-apartheid policies, identity politics and other social positions that the colonial enterprise implanted on their different climates of influence.
INFLUX AND INTENSITY
Interestingly so, the efforts of, arguably, the Great Son of Africa, musically and with regards to reggae music, were born out of a clearly demonstrated understanding of the colonial era and its influences and legacy, with critical particularity to the apartheid era. Like many of the musicians rising to fame in the apartheid era, he rose to prominence in a crude manner as the environment would not allow for the orthodox way of things.
I find social justice embedded in the music world of Lucky Dube. From alluding to the Bible to addressing with particularity to crime, poverty and education issues Lucky Dube was deliberately articulate. Songs like The hand that giveth for instance call out on the poor to help the less fortunate in the society. This is to help reach a balance between the two social constructs, the rich and the poor. Education in the eyes of Lucky Dube was an enabling factor for the future of the post-apartheid South Africa. This was based on the understanding that the regime of the time was doing little or nothing to ensure that indeed it was available. Emphasis by the regime was to ensure the erection of prisons instead of schools. This is later seen with the famous child protests and even in the works of Steve Biko.
ELABORATE MUSIC
Simplicity is exemplified in the content production and by extension all through the creative process. Simplicity is infectious and harbours truth in its rawness. Lucky Dube implores the listener by factual based lyrics that project the conceptual structure of the apartheid society and calls them to action to support the anti-apartheid movement. This did not sit well, obviously, with the political class and the apartheid machinery and of course led or contributed to the banning of his album. The controlling idea behind his performances, arguably, are driven by the idea and his own thinking that indeed there were barriers in the world that ought to be broken and that people were waiting for someone to deliver the message. Highlighting the situation back at home was important in bringing to the world to speed with the happenings on apartheid South Africa. For some time the world turned a blind eye to the problem of inequality and apartheid policies. This can be related to the recent developments after the death of George Floyd where the death acted as a spark that led to a fire and consequently the smoke that is the sensibility of racial injustices and police brutality.
Many titles to his songs were analogous in nature. This helped his art to thrive in a hostile environment. This informs the level of improvisation that is encompassed in his numerous productions. This improvisation not only enhanced his survival as an artist but also saw him thrive regardless of the surroundings. This contributed to the proverbial nature of his songs and helped build significance, something that his songs have not lost to this moment. This shows the versatility of Lucky Dube as an artist.
The character of Lucky Dube is immortalized in his songs. So far so good, even in death the songs he left behind for the music lovers continue to serve as inspiration to social justice defenders. The mainstream influence of the music by Lucky Dube continues to resonate with us and shall continue to in the near foreseeable future.
ABOUT WRITER: Wambua Muindi is a life and literature enthusiast. A recent graduate of literature and political science at the University of Nairobi. He is an editor, published poet, writer(non-fiction) on my wordpress blog, digital kamba cultural archivist and literary activist. His poems have appeared in Poetic Africa and Writers Space Africa Magazine. Currently, he is engaged as an Editor at Writers Space Kenya, an offshoot of Writers Space Africa and Publisher and a Senior Editor at Africa in Dialogue, an online interview magazine.
