Sky’s the limit

>> Johannesburg’s Johnny Clegg takes a pass on musical and political celebrity, in favour of a long career and creating jobs for his community

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

“I’ve chosen a life and a career that, by definition, limits me,” says Johnny Clegg. “As a world musician, you’re marginalized and you don’t get played on the radio, but I’ve built up a fan base of 300,000 or 400,000 people around the world who are very dedicated to what I play… and I can play anything I want, I can mix anything I want, and that has given me longevity. That’s a wonderful aspect of what I do—I had my first hit in South Africa in 1976, and much bigger artists than me have come and gone, but I’m still touring.”

The last time Clegg and his band played Montreal, 25,000 people gathered in the downtown streets to watch them kick off the Jazz Festival. It was something of an encore presentation; Clegg had performed at the fest in 1988, when he was near the peak of his popularity worldwide. Apartheid was in full force, but Clegg’s largely black bands of the ’70s and ’80s, Juluka and Savuka, and their eclectic mix of African and Western musical styles, languages and dances, represented hope for a united future, which came to fruition with the official end of the totalitarian system in 1994.

Over two decades later, on his latest album, One Life, Clegg continues to merge world rhythms, from rock to raï to hip hop, with Zulu instrumentation and vocals, including the evocative Zulu choral style known as Umzansi.

“When I hear Umzansi, I feel that there are people who have experienced something different to me as a human and they’re telling me about it in these harmonies. I’ve always had a fascination with that.”

Clegg’s dedication to the causes of the common man hasn’t abated either. He compares present-day South Africa to Eastern Europe after the Soviet collapse, with its mix of third- and first-world attributes. There are high unemployment and crime rates (he’s been hijacked twice) and an HIV-positive population of five million. On the other hand, the country’s economic growth is steady, and they’re excelling in the IT field, inventing gateway technology for companies like Verizon. Moreover, the shadow of apartheid is lifting. “We have a new generation of young people who have no knowledge of apartheid—they’re free! And for me, coming from that period, it’s a miracle.

“But however wonderful the new South Africa will be,” he adds, “it’s only for the black middle class. I come from a community that is poor, uneducated in the extreme, warriors, tribesmen who have no future. The black working class will suffer, but the black migrant class from the rural areas, they will really suffer.”

To help his community, Clegg has co-founded an electronic-waste management company called African Sky, employing 100 people (and paying above the minimum wage) to dismantle and recycle computers by hand, rather than using machines.

“My dream is to see Africa as the waste continent. Bono and the EU are talking about ‘trade, not aid,’ so we’re saying, ‘Give us your waste, give us the worst thing you’ve got, we can create jobs out of it,’ which is a stabilizing factor, in the crime, in everything. That’s my vision, something that would be worthwhile, in the last half of my life, to drive and to champion.”

at Metropolis
on Friday, Feb. 23, 8 p.m., $37.50