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The effect of traditional African music on liberation songs


The author engaged in song. Image by Wandile Kasibe.

By Lukhanyo Ka Dideka


This is an excerpt from Lukhanyo's Honours essay submitted late 2019 titled "Senzeni na Nkosi: The Politics of Deploying Liberation Songs in #FeesMustFall".


To demonstrate the significance and the function of music in the everyday life of African society, Gertrud Tönsing analyses the interrelationship between Christian choruses and liberation songs. The scholar notes that in traditional African societies music was rather a necessity than it was luxury as it was ‘integrally linked with every aspect of community life and essential of creating bonds and sharing news.’ 1 Also, traditional African music or what is referred to here as cultural songs were – and still are – characterised by their vocality, and with the clapping of hands and stamping of the foot which often take the place of the percussion instruments. This characteristic of traditional African music meant that songs could be sung wherever and whenever. Tönsing further argues that this feature of traditional African music was always available for expression of emotions. 2



There is a song called Palesa that we sang during the national protests of Fees Must Fall and that resonates with the assertion of emotional expression by Tönsing. For the context of #FeesMustFall the song was not necessarily relevant; however, it was made to be with the alteration of the lyrics to fit the context. The song starts as a lament by a man who I assume had spent the night out with Palesa. However, on the hour that they must leave for ‘home’ (his place I assume again), Palesa disappears, and so laments the guy:



(call) Oh yhini ses'goduka Palesa x2 Oh just when we were about to go home Palesa


(response) yhini ses'goduka Palesa x2 Just when we were about to go home Palesa


(call) Wavele wanyamalala x2 You just disappeared


(response) wavele wanyamalala x2 You just disappeared


Ohh yhini ses’goduka Palesa! Oh just when we were going home Palesa!


The song would go on like this from the start to the end, only changing in timbre as well as in rhythmic and melodic patterns. Thus, to make it relevant to the student scene we tweaked it, and added a call to the lamenting guy, addressed here as a student, to not cry as we have come here for him:



(call) Thula we mfundi, Quiet now student


thula we mdundi sizele wena x2 Don’t cry we have come for you


(reponse) Thula we mfundi, Quiet now student


thula we mfundi sizele wena x2 Don’t cry we have come for you





Though the song was not a liberation song, as its lyrical content was not political, it was however, given a political purpose by the students: that of capturing and unifying. Another scholar, Anne Schumann, who also analyses the political use of songs attests that even though the texts of such songs “were not always political ones, their use was nevertheless to advance a political cause.” 3 Considering all that the students were seeking to achieve through their demands to their respective institutional management, it was important that they remain united and determined on the cause they had taken up to achieve, and songs such as Palesa were therefore deployed purposefully to mobilise and unify students behind their demands. The call and response of the song is accompanied by clapping and stamping of the foot. The former is a cry by the lead singer, for Palesa who had vanished with the night, and he is supported through his pain by a sympathetic response.


Though the song was not a liberation song . . . it was however, given a political purpose by the students: that of capturing and unifying


Through clapping of hands and stamping, the rhythm and melody of the song is formed, and they go on through the cry and the response. The blending of the cry and response with the rhythm and melody gives the song a captivating factor that is able to draw and unify any mass that is singing the song. However, when the lead singer (as the crying guy) laments, wavele wanyamalala, the rhythm and melody break and the arms of the lead singer and the sympathisers are tossed to the air in sign of vanishment. Taken further, the missing Palesa could be interpreted as to symbolise the unfulfilled promises of the post-apartheid dispensation, that are enshrined on the Freedom Charter – which was adopted in Kliptown on the 29th of June in 1955. 4 The sympathetic response, which asks the lamenting student to cease crying over Palesa as we – the students – have come for him, this should concurrently be interpreted as an intervention made through song. We should consider that, to sing that “we have come for you” as a stand taken by students against a society that perpetuated their systematic marginalisation, as such they had had enough, and be that it maybe, they were prepared to take on the system. 5



PASMA UWC Activists singing. Image by Siyasanga Ndwayi.

The call and response effect are a typical feature of traditional African songs of which Tönsing accounts for and adds that this effect is suited to crowd singing. The call and response style of African music enables a dialogue between the lead singer and those who are following. Through this dialogue they state their claims and demands, or anything the song may be calling to action, or referring to. This warrants a strong lead singer to introduce enough variation to keep the interest and dynamism of the group going. 25 The call of the leader commands, or gives a directive of which the response follows, and it clearly indicates to the desired politics of the group singing liberation songs.




1 Tönsing, G. ‘Limnandi Evangeli and Hlanganani Bafundi: An exploration of the interrelationships between Christain choruses and South African songs of the Struggle’. (2017): 2 21 Ibid. P. 2

2 Schumann, A. (2008). ‘The Beat that Beat Apartheid: The Role of Music in the Resistance against Apartheid in South Africa’, P. 24

3 The Freedom Charter is important on at least two points in the history of the South African liberation; the first, it signals the unification of the different interest groups in the political landscape of South Africa against the apartheid state – which intended on enhancing those differences by separating races (and ethnicities) from each other. The other point is that, the Freedom Charter is at the fore of the split between the ANC and the Africanist bloc that formed the Pan Africanist Congress in 1959 led by Robert Sobukwe – which conceived the struggle for the liberation of Africans to be that of Africans only, and anyone who was an ally or sympathiser had to organise themselves and rally behind the cause under the leadership of Africans.

4 The extent of violence that ensued at various campuses illuminates the will that students carried to further their cause, however, the latter should not be read as to be saying that the student incited the violence that ravaged higher institutions of learning – rather, the opposite is true. The history of the South African Police Service, in the apartheid and the democratic state, proves of its incapability to resolve conflicts with mass movements and protest situations. The case of Andries Tatana – shot dead by police in Sasolburg in a service delivery protest – and the Marikana massacre attests to the latter. Instead of institutional executives and governmental officials to take accountability, students were met by the brutal force of the law; the police service and private securities were deployed to put an end to the protests by any means necessary, and the students were to have none of it – universities caught fire.

5 Tönsing, G. (2017). ‘Limnandi Evangeli and Hlanganani Bafundi: An exploration of the interrelationships between Christain choruses and South African songs of the Struggle’. P 3. See also, Peis, P. (1996) ‘Kizungu Rhythms: Luguru Christianity as Ngoma’, Journal of Religion in Africa, Vol. 26.

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