Since it first came into being, music has been used to communicate and to connect, and for many years, musicians have been using their art to help educate and inspire people.
These songs were written to take listeners on an educational journey based on the social injustices that have impacted Africa over the years. They depict the power that music holds in society and its importance when it comes to storytelling.
From promoting peace and ending conflict, to standing up for women’s rights, these songs bring awareness to issues that need to be eradicated in order for us to achieve the UN’s Global Goals. Join the movement and take action to help achieve equality and justice for all here.
With each decade music changes and each decade has music that encapsulates it.
In South Africa during the apartheid era, musicians from Johnny Clegg to Hugh Masekela used music to liberate the people, and whenever people toyi-toyi - a protest dance - or have public demonstrations in the country, they often sing protest songs.
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South African’s used protest songs before the apartheid regime, but during that era protest music become more popular as it was a way of spreading the message across the globe.
Nelson Mandela. Source: Wikipedia
Artists and Their Songs of Action and Inspiration
Here are just some of the artists known for using music to spread messages of action and inspiration across Africa, and some of their greatest songs.
1. Fela Kuti - Zombie
Musician and political activist Fela Kuti was outspoken against the Nigerian military juntas, which were dictatorships led by Nigerian Armed Forces, and made many songs opposing them.
In 1976 he recorded “Zombie”, a protest song that criticises Nigeria’s oppressive military regime.
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Later on in 1989, Kuti teamed up with musical group Egypt 80 to release “Beast of No Nation”, an anti-apartheid song that was inspired by a speech made by then Prime Minister of South Africa P.W. Bothain 1985, in which he said “This uprising will bring out the beast in us”.
Fela Kuti - Zombie
2. Miriam Makeba - Beware, Verwoerd! (Ndodemnyama)
Best known as Mama Africa, Makeba created many songs protesting the apartheid system from “Soweto Blues” to “Beware, Verwoerd! (Ndodemnyama)”.
“Beware, Verwoerd!” was a reference to then Prime Minister of South Africa Hendrick Verwoerd, who played a significant role in implementing the apartheid regime.
In 1960, Makeba was exiled from South Africa and banned from returning.
In that time she became popular in the US, which propelled her to global stardom as she continued to write and perform protest songs around the world that spoke out against apartheid.
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3. Angélique Kidjo - We We
In the 1980s Kidjo burst onto the music scene and she hasn't looked back since.
Kidjo is the embodiment of an African and the best way to learn this about her is through her music and philanthropic actions, which include Kidjo’s work through the Batonga Foundation and advocating for quality education for young girls.
In her music she often raises awareness of struggles that African people are facing.
In her 1992 smash hit “We We”, Kidjo sings about child labour that was particularly rife in villages across Africa at that time.
Kidjo continues to raise awareness through her music today, in her 2014 album EVE she sings about the everyday struggles that women face and also promotes their strengths.
4. Sauti Sol - Tujiangalie
“Tujiangalie” is a powerful song by Afro-pop band Sauti Sol that features rapper Nyashinski from the group’s fourth studio album Afrikan Sauce.
“Tujiangalie” is a Swahili word meaning “self reflection”.
The song, which was released in 2018, questions whether things are fine in their native country of Kenya.
They further unpack some of the country’s most pressing problems of the time, such as corruption, economic inequality, the crisis of leadership, and the debt challenges it faced with China.
This song helped ignite a fire within the people of Kenya, especially the youth, and reminded them that they hold the power.
Bold enough to address issues we all discuss in undertones. Definitely got me thinking of my contribution in bettering this country.
5. Brenda Fassie - Black President
Brenda Fassie was a multifaceted South African artist whose music addressed many social issues from sexuality to race, at a time when South Africa was going through one of its worst eras.
There was also a period when the apartheid government banned Fassie’s music in the country.
In 1990, Fassie released her sixth studio album entitled Black President, including a single of the same name.
“Black President” was written by Fassie and Chicco Thwala around the time Nelson Mandela was about to be released from prison, and the apartheid regime was coming to an end.
6. Oliver Mtukudzi - Todii
Mtukudzi was a Zimbabwean musician, philanthropist, and UNICEF ambassador, and he used his music to talk about what was happening in his community and to raise awareness around HIV.
In his 2002 song “Tapera” - which translates to “we are dying” - and the 1999 hit song “Todii”, he talks about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In the song, Mtukudzi goes on to ask if the cure of this disease can be found and he further asks anyone with the ideas on the solutions to come forward.
7. Loyiso Gijana - Madoda Sabelani
At the height of gender-based violence in South Africa in 2020, Gijana released “Madoda Sabelani” which means “men must answer” in isiXhosa .
This song is a plea to all men in the country to stop abusing and killing women.
The video featured some of the women and girls who have been murdered in South Africa in recent years, including 7-year-old Kgothatso Molefe, University of Cape Town student Uyinene Mrwetyana, and Tshegofatso Pule, who was pregnant at the time she was murdered.
"Kum Ba Yah": An African-American Spiritual
"Kum ba yah" ("Come by here") is an African-American spiritual of disputed origin, known to have been sung in the Gullah culture of the islands off South Carolina and Georgia, with ties to enslaved Central Africans.
The first known recording was made by the folklorist Robert Winslow Gordon in 1926. It features an unaccompanied tenor voice identified only as "H. Wylie" singing in the Gullah language.
The piece became a standard campfire song in Scouting and summer camps and enjoyed broader popularity during the folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s.
According to the Library of Congress editor Stephen Winick, the song almost certainly originated among African Americans in the Southeastern United States.
A Gullah version emerged early in its history, even if the song did not originate in that dialect.
The two oldest versions whose year of origin is known for certain were both collected in 1926, and both reside in the Library's American Folklife Center.
One was submitted as a high-school collecting project by a student named Minnie Lee to her teacher, Julian P. Boyd, later a professor of history at Princeton University and president of the American Historical Association.
This version, collected in Alliance, North Carolina, is a manuscript featuring lyrics but no music.
The other 1926 version was recorded on a wax cylinder by Robert Winslow Gordon, founder of what began as the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song, which became the American Folklife Center.
The singer's name was H. Wylie, and the song was recorded within a few hours' drive of Darien, Georgia, although Gordon did not note the exact location.
Between 1926 and 1928, Gordon recorded three more versions of traditional spirituals with the refrain "come by here" or "come by heah".
One of these is a different song concerning the story of Daniel in the lions' den.
According to an article in Kodaly Envoy by Lum Chee-Hoo, some time between 1922 and 1931, members of the Society for the Preservation of Spirituals collected a version from the South Carolina coast.
"Come by Yuh", as they called it, was sung in Gullah, the creole language spoken by the formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants living on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia, as well as the Bahamas.
It is possible this is the earliest version, if it was collected before 1926.
