This evening, musician, activist, dancer and anthropologist Johnny Clegg will participate in a question-and-answer discussion, sponsored by the Montgomery Fellows program. Clegg is visiting campus between gigs for his North American tour.
“It’s an opportunity for everyone to see him speak about his own life and what’s motivated his music and his career in a pretty informal way,” Mongtomery Fellows Program director and government professor Christianne Hardy Wohlforth said.
Clegg performed at the Lebanon Opera House on Saturday. Between sets, Clegg described his songs and the inspirations behind them. His band played on Western-style instruments that had been reconfigured to produce more of a Zulu sound, said Sam Parker ’15, who was invited to the performance after participating in the environmental studies department’s foreign study program in South Africa this fall.
“The sound is totally unique, nothing like you’ve ever heard,” Parker said.
A dancer before he started his own band, Clegg demonstrated Zulu dance moves throughout the performance. Throughout the night audience members got out of their seats and tried to perform the moves, Parker said.
“His concerts are really fun, but they are also full of stories,” environmental studies professor Andrew Friedland, who saw Clegg when he visited campus in 2012, said. “There are stories about cultural anthropology, dance, the politics of South Africa and the apartheid years.”
In 1969, Clegg formed Juluka, the first prominent mixed-race band in South Africa. During apartheid, it was illegal for the radio to play mixed-race bands, so the band’s first album received no airtime on state radio but became a big seller due to word of mouth. Juluka went on to release 11 studio albums.
Juluka’s music was both implicitly and explicitly political. The band’s success as a biracial group made it a sore spot for a government based in systemic racial segregation. The group also produced political songs, like those in the album “Work for All,” that clashed with the regime at the time.
Clegg later formed a second interracial band, Savuka, in 1986, which produced five studio albums. Savuka’s 1993 album “Heat, Dust and Dreams” was nominated for a Grammy Award for best world music album. Savuka also produced the song “Asimbonanga,” a culturally and politically prominent song that called for Nelson Mandela’s release. Clegg closes every concert with the song, Friedland said.
“It’s kind of like an anthem to Nelson Mandela that was written when Mandela was in prison,” Friedland said. “Throughout Africa it is just known as one of the anthems, maybe the best-known anthem, to Nelson Mandela.”
Clegg was also a professor of anthropology and has published essays on various topics, including Zulu dance and music. Clegg received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Dartmouth in 2012.
Clegg will come as part of the Montgomery Fellows program, which tends to involve some form of residency. Because of Clegg’s tour schedule he will only be on campus for two days, Wohlforth said.
In his talk tonight, Clegg will discuss his life and his work.
“He represents a very interesting mix of someone who has thought very deeply about issues of equality, about human rights and social justice and has combined the joy of making music and playing music and giving concerts with a social agenda,” Wohlforth said.
“A Conversation with Johnny Clegg” will take place at 4 p.m. in Filene Auditorium.
