Sometimes called Le Zoulou Blanc, he is an important figure in South African popular music history, with songs that mix Zulu with English lyrics and African with various Western music styles.
Clegg was born in Bacup, Lancashire, to an English father and a Rhodesian mother. Clegg's mother's family were Jewish immigrants from Poland, and Clegg had a secular Jewish upbringing, learning about the Ten Commandments but refusing to have a bar mitzvah or even associate with other Jewish children at school. His parents divorced when he was still an infant, and he moved with his mother to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and then, at the age of 6, to South Africa, also spending less than a year in Israel during childhood.
As an adolescent in Johannesburg's northern suburbs, 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 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 17, he met Sipho Mchunu, a Zulu migrant worker with whom he began performing music. The partnership, which they named Johnny & Sipho and then Juluka, was profiled in the 1970s television documentary Beats of the Heart: Rhythm of Resistance.
As a young man, Clegg pursued an academic career for four years, lecturing at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Natal, and writing 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, among others, 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. An engaged social anthropologist, he not only mastered the theories but delved into the culture and disseminated it.
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.[9] 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. Just as unusually, the band's music combined Zulu, Celtic, and rock elements, with both English and isiZulu lyrics. Those lyrics often contained coded political messages and references to the battle against apartheid, although Clegg has 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."
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 and five gold albums, becoming an international success. The group was disbanded in 1985, when Mchunu returned to his rural home to care for his family.
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 and led to his expulsion from the British Musicians' Union. 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.
Briefly reunited in the mid-1990s, Clegg and Mchunu reformed Juluka, released a new album, and toured throughout the world in 1996 with King Sunny Ade. Since then, Clegg has recorded several solo albums. His touring schedule was abbreviated in 2017 after undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer, and Clegg performed his last scheduled tour date in Maritius in October of 2018. During one concert in 1999, he was joined onstage by South African President Nelson Mandela, who danced as he sang the protest song Savuka had dedicated to him, "Asimbonanga". Asimbonanga became something of an anthem 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 song "Scatterlings of Africa" gave him his only entries in the UK Singles Chart to date, reaching No. 44 in February 1983 with Juluka and 75 in May 1987 as Johnny Clegg and Savuka. The following year the song was featured on the soundtrack to the 1988 Oscar-winning film Rain Man.
His song "Life is a Magic Thing" was featured in Ferngully.
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. "Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World" was featured in the 1990 film Opportunity Knocks and 1991 film Career Opportunities. "Great Heart" was also the end credits song for the 2000 Disney movie Whispers: An Elephant's Tale. In 2002 Clegg provided several songs and incidental background music for Jane Goodall's "Wild Chimpanzees" DVD. Included in the extras on the disc are rare scenes of Clegg in the recording studio.
Jimmy Buffett recorded "Great Heart" for his 1988 album, Hot Water.
He co-wrote "Diggah Tunnah" with Lebo M. for Disney's 2004 direct-to-video animated film The Lion King 1½.
Clegg was awarded the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) by the French Government in 1991.
In 2004, he was voted 23rd in the SABC3's Great South Africans.
In 2007, Clegg received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of the Witwatersrand.
In 2011, Clegg received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from City University of New York School of Law.
In 2012, Clegg received the Order of Ikhamanga,Silver as part of the National Orders ceremony. This award is the highest honour a citizen can receive in South Africa. It was presented by President Jacob Zuma.
In 2012, Clegg received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA.
In 2013, Clegg received an honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
In 2015, Clegg was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Clegg's son Jesse Clegg is also a recording artist. Displaying a style markedly different from that of his father, in 2008 he released his debut album When I Wake Up. As a rock musician, the younger Clegg has quickly built up a following, with the album being nominated for two South African Music Awards.
Clegg was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015. Clegg died in his Johannesburg home on 16 July 2019.
Bibliography
Clegg, Jonathan (1981). Phil Bonner (ed.). ""Ukubuyisa Isidumbu", "Bringing back the body": An examination of the ideology of vengeance in the Msinga and Mpofana Rural Locations, 1822–1944". Working Papers in Southern African Studies. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. 2.
Clegg, Jonathan (1981). Andrew Tracey (ed.). "The Music of Zulu Immigrant Workers in Johannesburg: A Focus on Concertina and Guitar". Papers presented at the Symposium on Ethnomusicology. Grahamstown: International Library of African Music.
Clegg, Jonathan (1982). Andrew Tracey (ed.). "Towards an understanding of African Dance: The Zulu Isishameni Style". Papers read at Second Symposium on Ethnomusicology, 24–26 September 1981, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. Grahamstown: Institute of Social and Economic Research.
Orphans of the Empire
Johnny Clegg Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Come for to build and raise a colony
And in the jungle green their citadels did gleam
In tribute and homage to the old country
Oh, soon their children grew and promised to be true
Orphans of an Empire, their destiny
Hold me close, Africa
Let me grow old, Africa
Let me in
Fill my soul, Africa
Don’t let me go, Africa
Let me grow old, Africa
Remember me
Imperial gentleman, he built mighty walls
And in the jungle atternoon he plays polo when he’s bored
He sips a gin and tonic, he tells you confidentially
He wished he understood the indigenies
But the shadows they are lengthening and the sun it must set
Bewildered and confused he scurries home to his bed
Hold me close, Africa
Fill my soul, Africa
Let me grow old, Africa
Let me in
Fill my soul, Africa
Don’t let me go, Africa
Let me grow old, Africa
Remember me
He cannot understand the soldiers all at hand
For with guns you cannot fight a foe that dwells within
But the batlle had begun and a soldier he’s become
Who can sing his litany?
It's a beggarman’s prayer or a string on the wind
Will that be all that lingers in the memory?
And who will remember that African December?
When he knelt before the colours and swore to do or die
And he kissed his frightened lover, beneath the glowing embers
Of a dark, strange heaven, that ancient sky
Now he's gone to dust, just like old soldiers must
But the mournful mutter of the battlefield still lingers in the air
So it's farewell sweet Caroline, farewell Elizabeth
Goodbye gentle ladies of the old order
And farewell to your islands carved upon this continent
Some England, some France, some Germany
Oh, Soon you will return to that dream across the sea
'Cause here there's no more honey left for tea
(Hold me close, Africa) Fill my soul
(Fill my soul, Africa) Hold me
(Let me grow old, Africa)
Let me in
(Fill my soul, Africa) Fill my soul
(Don’t let me go, Africa) Hold me
(Let me grow old, Africa)
Oh, remember me
(Khumbula) Will you remember me?
(Khumbula) Will you remember me?
(Khumbula) Will you remember me?
(Khumbula) Oh, will you remember me?
"Orphans of the Empire" by Johnny Clegg is an introspective song that talks about the effects of colonization on Africa. The song opens with a description of European ships arriving in Africa to colonize and build a new society. The colonizers raised citadels as a tribute to their home country, and their children promised to remain loyal to their motherland, regardless of their birthplace. The phrase "Orphans of an empire" refers to the children of colonizers who were born in Africa but felt a deep attachment to their parent county.
The chorus of the song "Hold me close, Africa; fill my soul, Africa; let me grow old Africa; let me in; don't let me go, Africa; remember me" hints at the conflict and confusion within the colonizers who felt a sense of attachment to Africa, but also a longing for their home country. The song further highlights the disconnection between the colonizers and indigenous people. Colonizers built mighty walls instead of trying to understand the culture of the locals. As the battle begins, the colonizers become soldiers, and the song questions the legacy that remains for those who fought and died for a cause they might have not fully understood. The song ends with a farewell to the islands carved upon the continent, and the realization that Africa is not the promised land it was once thought to be.
Line by Line Meaning
In ships they came from Europe, across the salt sea
Europeans came sailing to Africa in ships using the sea route.
Come for to build and raise a colony
They came with a plan to build and establish colonies.
And in the jungle green their citadels did gleam
The jungle was cleared, and they built beautiful cities that shone in the sun.
In tribute and homage to the old country
The cities that were built were a symbol of their loyalty to their home country.
Oh, soon their children grew and promised to be true
Their children grew up and pledged allegiance to the empire.
Orphans of an Empire, their destiny
The children of the colonists had no other destiny than to be loyal citizens of the empire.
Hold me close, Africa
The person singing the song expresses their love for Africa and desire to be close to it.
Fill my soul, Africa
The person requesting Africa to fill their soul indicates the great value they find in the land.
Let me grow old, Africa
The person pleads that they would like to live long on this continent which they cherish.
Let me in
The person pleads to be accepted into the continent, to be welcomed and accepted as one of them.
Don’t let me go, Africa
The person is reluctant to leave Africa, to part with it.
Remember me
The person wants to be remembered by Africa, to remain in its memories even after they leave.
Imperial gentleman, he built mighty walls
The colonizers were powerful men who built massive structures and walls to control the land.
And in the jungle afternoon he plays polo when he’s bored
The colonizers engage in leisure activities such as playing polo in the afternoon, a luxury reserved for the wealthy.
He sips a gin and tonic, he tells you confidentially
The colonizer drinks gin and tonic, and in private, he shares his thoughts with his closest confidants.
He wished he understood the indigenies
The colonizer wishes he understood the native people, their culture, and their way of living.
But the shadows they are lengthening and the sun it must set
As it grows dark, the end of colonization is drawing nearer.
Bewildered and confused he scurries home to his bed
The colonizer is confused about his place in Africa and returns home to his bed, uncertain about his future.
He cannot understand the soldiers all at hand
The colonizer is having difficulty comprehending the soldiers and weaponry of the native people.
For with guns you cannot fight a foe that dwells within
Guns are useless against an enemy that is within the land and knows the terrain well.
But the battle had begun and a soldier he’s become
The colonizer has no choice but to become a soldier and fight.
Who can sing his litany?
The soldier sings his prayers, asking for guidance and strength.
It's a beggarman’s prayer or a string on the wind
The soldier's prayers are like a beggar's plea or a string that the wind carries away.
Will that be all that lingers in the memory?
Will the soldier's prayers be the only thing that remains in memory?
And who will remember that African December?
Who will remember that historical moment in December when events took place?
When he knelt before the colours and swore to do or die
The soldier knelt before the flag, swearing to fight to the death.
And he kissed his frightened lover, beneath the glowing embers
The soldier shared a moment of intimacy with his lover when he was frightened as burning embers glowed.
Of a dark, strange heaven, that ancient sky
The sky was dark, and it seems like a strange, ancient environment.
Now he's gone to dust, just like old soldiers must
Like every soldier before him, the soldier has died and turned to dust.
But the mournful mutter of the battlefield still lingers in the air
The sound of the fighting on the battlefield still hangs in the air, adding to the grief.
So it's farewell sweet Caroline, farewell Elizabeth
The song speaks goodbye to those who were part of the empire.
Goodbye gentle ladies of the old order
The song is saying goodbye to the gentle ladies who were part of the old order.
And farewell to your islands carved upon this continent
The song is saying goodbye to the colonies which the empire created in Africa.
Some England, some France, some Germany
Some colonies belonged to England, France, or Germany.
Oh, Soon you will return to that dream across the sea
The nations will go back to their dreamland overseas (Europe), leaving Africa behind.
'Cause here there's no more honey left for tea
Africa is not able to provide material resources like tea anymore.
(Hold me close, Africa) Fill my soul
The person is still expressing love to Africa and asking to fill their soul.
(Fill my soul, Africa) Hold me
The person also needs Africa to hold and embrace them.
(Let me grow old, Africa) Let me in
The person reminds Africa that they want to remain in the land for a long time.
(Don’t let me go, Africa) Fill my soul
The person is pleading with Africa to make their stay comfortable and fulfilling.
(Hold me, Africa) Don’t let me go
The person again pleads not to be sent away from Africa.
(Let me grow old, Africa) Oh, remember me
The person still wants Africa to remember them even after they have left the land.
(Khumbula) Will you remember me?
The person is asking Africa directly if it would remember them.
(Khumbula) Will you remember me?
The person repeats the question, asking it again.
(Khumbula) Will you remember me?
The person repeats the question for the third time, stressing its importance.
(Khumbula) Oh, will you remember me?
The person concludes by asking Africa with a sense of longing if it would remember them.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@conradmanove9197
" For Queen , For Country, ".. " The Sun never set on the British Empire ".. I come from a former colony and I can't help but feel an affection for HM empire in this song.. excellent composition.. RIP JOHNNY CLEGG..😎😎🤧🤧 , Ps: please listen to "High Country " by him.. God blessing from Papua New Guinea, across the south seas...
@narcissenarcisse9306
Oh my God tears are coming out of my eyes remembering my home land AFRICA ✊... You will always be remembered Jhonny Clegg a hero of our century 🇲🇺🇲🇺, through this song I remember my grandpa when we was in Zaïre working for mining company there in kolwezi
@davidriley1321
❤️ I loved this song the moment I heard it , got me through tough times
@rodihennaw9359
Fantastic music indeed, miss you Africa <3
@THEchupakabra
This is my Sailing song
@oliverDgiesler
I miss my African home
@indiralobo1947
fantástico musico e linda canção para uma boa reflexão do que acontece no mundo...
@alanfox7860
no prizes for guessing the song about slavery.bob marley did the same subject matter in buffalo soilder. i must go on wikipedia and look up their back catalogue of albums. i discovered 2 african artists tonight.
@susanlarhubarbe9475
I think it’s more about colonization and how the ‘colonists’ may feel like ‘orphans of the empire’ etc.