Johnny Clegg (Jonathan Clegg, 7 June 1953 – 16 July 2019) was a South Afric… Read Full Bio ↴Johnny Clegg (Jonathan Clegg, 7 June 1953 – 16 July 2019) was a South African musician and anthropologist who recorded and performed with his bands Juluka and Johnny Clegg and Savuka, and as a solo act, occasionally reuniting with his earlier band partners.
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.
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.
The Crossing
Johnny Clegg Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Through all the days that eat away
At every breath that I take
Through all the nights I have lain alone
In someone else's dream, awake
All the words in truth that were spoken
That the wind has blown away
Oh, it's only you that remains with me
Clear as the light of day
O siyeza, o siyeza
Sizofika webaba noma
O siyeza, o siyeza
Siyagudle lomhlaba
Siyawela lapheshaya
Lulezontaba ezimnyama
Lapha sobheka phansi
Konke ukhulupheka
A punch-drunk man in a downtown bar
Takes a beating without making a sound
Through swollen eyes, he sways and he smiles
'Cause no one can put him down
Inside of him a boy looks up to his father
For a sign or an approvin' eye
Oh, it's funny how those once so close and now gone
Still so affect our lives
O siyeza (oh, I'm comin'), o siyeza (I'll be comin')
Sizofika webaba noma (you know the tide is turnin')
O siyeza, o siyeza (you know the tide is turnin')
Siyagudle lomhlaba (make my crossin')
Siyawela lapheshaya (over this dark land)
Lulezontaba ezimnyama (gonna touch your face)
Lapha sobheka phansi (gonna lay me down)
Konke ukhulupheka (in your grace)
Take me now
Don't let go
Hold me close
I'm comin' home
O siyeza (oh, I'm comin'), o siyeza (I'll be comin')
Sizofika webaba noma (you know the tide is turnin')
O siyeza, o siyeza (I'm tellin' you, the tide is turnin')
Siyagudle lomhlaba (gonna make this crossin')
Siyawela lapheshaya (over this dark land)
Lulezontaba ezimnyama (gonna touch your face)
Lapha sobheka phansi (gonna lay me down)
Konke ukhulupheka (in that green field of grace)
O siyeza (oh, I'm comin'), o siyeza (oh, I'm comin')
Sizofika webaba noma (oh, I'm comin', oh, I'm comin')
O siyeza, o siyeza (oh, I'm comin', gonna lay me down)
Siyagudle lomhlaba
Siyawela lapheshaya (gonna make my crossin' over this dark land)
Lulezontaba ezimnyama (I'm gonna touch your face)
Lapha sobheka phansi (gonna lay me down)
Konke ukhulupheka (in your green fields of grace)
O siyeza, o siyeza
Sizofika webaba noma
O siyeza, o siyeza
Siyagudle lomhlaba
Siyawela lapheshaya
Lulezontaba ezimnyama
Lapha sobheka phansi
At every breath that I take
Through all the nights I have lain alone
In someone else's dream, awake
All the words in truth that were spoken
That the wind has blown away
Oh, it's only you that remains with me
O siyeza, o siyeza
Sizofika webaba noma
O siyeza, o siyeza
Siyagudle lomhlaba
Siyawela lapheshaya
Lulezontaba ezimnyama
Lapha sobheka phansi
Konke ukhulupheka
A punch-drunk man in a downtown bar
Takes a beating without making a sound
Through swollen eyes, he sways and he smiles
'Cause no one can put him down
Inside of him a boy looks up to his father
For a sign or an approvin' eye
Oh, it's funny how those once so close and now gone
Still so affect our lives
O siyeza (oh, I'm comin'), o siyeza (I'll be comin')
Sizofika webaba noma (you know the tide is turnin')
O siyeza, o siyeza (you know the tide is turnin')
Siyagudle lomhlaba (make my crossin')
Siyawela lapheshaya (over this dark land)
Lulezontaba ezimnyama (gonna touch your face)
Lapha sobheka phansi (gonna lay me down)
Konke ukhulupheka (in your grace)
Take me now
Don't let go
Hold me close
I'm comin' home
O siyeza (oh, I'm comin'), o siyeza (I'll be comin')
Sizofika webaba noma (you know the tide is turnin')
O siyeza, o siyeza (I'm tellin' you, the tide is turnin')
Siyagudle lomhlaba (gonna make this crossin')
Siyawela lapheshaya (over this dark land)
Lulezontaba ezimnyama (gonna touch your face)
Lapha sobheka phansi (gonna lay me down)
Konke ukhulupheka (in that green field of grace)
O siyeza (oh, I'm comin'), o siyeza (oh, I'm comin')
Sizofika webaba noma (oh, I'm comin', oh, I'm comin')
O siyeza, o siyeza (oh, I'm comin', gonna lay me down)
Siyagudle lomhlaba
Siyawela lapheshaya (gonna make my crossin' over this dark land)
Lulezontaba ezimnyama (I'm gonna touch your face)
Lapha sobheka phansi (gonna lay me down)
Konke ukhulupheka (in your green fields of grace)
O siyeza, o siyeza
Sizofika webaba noma
O siyeza, o siyeza
Siyagudle lomhlaba
Siyawela lapheshaya
Lulezontaba ezimnyama
Lapha sobheka phansi
The lyrics of Johnny Clegg's song The Crossing convey a message of perseverance and hope despite difficult and trying circumstances. The opening lines describe a struggle to maintain one's breath throughout difficult days and nights spent alone in the dream of another. Though the wind may have blown away all spoken truth, there is one constant presence - a person or memory - that remains clear as the light of day. The second verse tells the story of a man taking a beating in a downtown bar but refusing to be put down; he looks up to his absent father for approval. These people and memories that were once intimately close continue to affect our lives even when they are no longer present.
Line by Line Meaning
Through all the days that eat away
Despite all the challenging times
At every breath that I take
Throughout every moment of my life
Through all the nights I have lain alone
During the many sleepless nights I have spent by myself
In someone else's dream, awake
While fully aware of the fact that someone else is dreaming of me
All the words in truth that were spoken
All the honest words that have been spoken
That the wind has blown away
That have been forgotten or lost over time
Oh, it's only you that remains with me
It is only you who I still remember
Clear as the light of day
As vividly as if it just happened yesterday
O siyeza, o siyeza
I am coming, I am coming
Sizofika webaba noma
We will arrive, father, no matter what
Siyagudle lomhlaba
We will cross this dark land
Siyawela lapheshaya
We will move quietly
Lulezontaba ezimnyama
Through the dark mountains
Lapha sobheka phansi
Where we look down below
Konke ukhulupheka
Everything is in chaos
A punch-drunk man in a downtown bar
A man who has been beaten and is disoriented
Takes a beating without making a sound
Is able to endure the beating without making any noise
Through swollen eyes, he sways and he smiles
Even with his wounds, he manages to keep smiling
'Cause no one can put him down
Because he refuses to be defeated
Inside of him a boy looks up to his father
The man is a son looking up to his father
For a sign or an approvin' eye
Hoping for a sign of approval
Oh, it's funny how those once so close and now gone
It's ironic how people who were once close are now separated
Still so affect our lives
Still have a significant impact on our lives
Take me now
Take me with you now
Don't let go
Don't leave me behind
Hold me close
Hold me tightly
I'm comin' home
I'm returning home
Lyrics © BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (FRANCE), Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: Jonathan Paul Clegg
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it
More Genres
No Artists Found
More Artists
Load All
No Albums Found
More Albums
Load All
No Tracks Found
Genre not found
Artist not found
Album not found
Search results not found
Song not found
@elsiethandekachauke1831
As we mourn your death not forgetting the liberation of free spirited songs, you have proven to the Nations that learning and embracing Multi-language it's possible. How can we forget your Humanity, Laughter when the odds were against the Black Nation you taught us that's it's ok to be Vulnerable and get lost in the music.
To: Jenny (Warrior's Wife)
Thank you for lending South Africa the time to Listen, Bond, Laugh, Dance with your Husband. He could have done a lot with you but you gave us a change to share experiences with him.
It's now sad we have say Good bye, We will always have goose bumps when we listen to his to his music still. But the Battle of Cancer is gone he will feel no pain any as Umdali is waiting for him.
I can say more and deep things that happen during his time when he enter the Industry but now those songs built us to where we are today
.
Great Heart
Johnny Clegg
The world is full of strange behaviour
Every man has to be his own saviour
I know I can make it on my own if I try
But I'm searching for a great heart to stand me by
Underneath the african sky
A great heart to stand me by
I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart
To hold and stand me by
I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart
Under african sky
I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart
I see the fire in your eyes
I'm searching for the spirit of the great heart
That beats my name inside
Sometimes I feel that you really know me
Sometimes there's much you can show me
There's a highway of stars across the heavens
The whispering song of the wind in the grass
There's the rolling thunder across the savanna
A hope…
@csmith8546
Come on South Africans! We can defeat the evil!
O Siyeza, o siyeza , sizofika webaba noma
(we are coming, we are coming, we will arrive soon)
O siyeza, o siyeza, siyagudle lomhlaba
(we are coming, we are coming, we are moving across this earth)
Siyawela lapheshaya lulezontaba ezimnyama
(we are crossing over those dark mountains)
Lapha sobheka phansi konke ukhulupheka
(where we will lay down our troubles)
Thank you Johnny. We badly needed this.
@michelemilne8028
I once saw Johnny sitting quietly at a coffee shop about 3 years ago. I approached him and thanked him for being here for us. No selfies, no autographs, just sincere thanks.
@mariuslemoine196
Just sincères thanks
@ahimsahomeopathy
How Beautiful!!
@ZaneColquhoun
Johnny was the first 'celebrity' I ever met in person. I passed him in a hotel parking lot and said 'Howzit Johnny.' He kindly returned the gesture. What an incredible life. This tribute is testament to the lives he's touched with his music. I grew up listening to The Scatterlings of Africa on LP. My first musical influence now that I think about it. Thanks for the 'firsts' Johnny. Your love for South Africa and it's people will be fondly remembered and honoured. Thanks for posting this Karen.
@Chris-lm4yk
It's the way it should be done, yet so few people do it, hats off to you
@tinusvandenberg2593
You were lucky
@cantalibre4708
I am sobbing uncontrollably... THIS is the South Africa Johnny Clegg lived and worked for. He has crossed over to the other side. Let us make him proud.
@allanerickson5053
I made it to the end before the tears, but yeah...
@indigoskies310
No Politics. No Hatred. Just love. Just people. Just South Africans. LET US BE ONE NATION!
@wendyrobertson9410
Just a dream with our current government driving this country into the ground. No electricity, sub-standard education, highest unemployment rate ever and crime that has spiraled and still we can't vote the anc out. Nope... we dream but going down like a lead balloon !