THE ʽSINGING FREEDOMʼ EXHIBITION: PAINFUL HISTORIES, COLLECTIVE MEMORIES AND PERCEPTIONS OF FREEDOM

Authors

  • Paul Tichmann
  • Shanaaz Galant

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/2309-5792/326

Keywords:

collective memory and trauma, freedom songs, Singing Freedom project

Abstract

This article discusses the research conducted in order to prepare the ‘Singing Freedom:  Music  and  the  struggle  against  apartheid’,  which  was  launched at the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum in Cape Town in March 2014. As part of this research, interviews were conducted with various musicians and other stakeholders involved with 'struggle songs' specifically and freedom songs more generally. The interview questions were informed by the current discourses and scholarship around collective memory and trauma.

References

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‘Struggle Song’. De La Rey and Its Coded Message to Fermenting Revolutionary Sentiments, 6 February, Media Releases 2005–2008, Department of Arts and Culture, Retrieved from https://www.dac.gov.za/media-releases-2

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Vuyisile Mini, a trade unionist and an ANC member who was recruited into uMkhonto

we Sizwe and became a member of the Eastern Cape High Command, was one of the first people to be hanged for treason by the apartheid government. He was also a singer and composer who had composed a number of freedom songs that became popular. Mini composed Izakunyathel’ iAfrica (Africa will trample you) and Thath’ umthwalo’ (Take up your luggage). He was arrested and, together with Wilson Khayinga and Zinakile Mkaba, charged with sabotage and complicity in the death of an alleged police informer and was hanged in the Pretoria Central Prison on 6 November 1964.

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Solomon Mahlangu had left the country to join MK and was trained in Angola and Mozambique. On 13 June 1977, he and two other MK operatives, Mondy Johannes Motloung and George ‘Lucky’ Mahlangu, were pursued by the police in Goch Street, Johannesburg. During their attempt to evade the police, two civilians were killed by Motloung. Solomon Mahlangu and Motloung were captured, but George Mahlangu managed to escape. Solomon Mahlangu and Motloung were arrested. Motloung, who was badly beaten during the course of his capture, was ruled unfit to stand trial due to severe brain damage. Solomon Mahlangu was tried, found guilty on two counts of murder and three charges under the Terrorism Act and sentenced to death by hanging. In spite of an international campaign for his release, he was executed by the apartheid government on 6 April 1979. In his honour, the ANC renamed their school in Tanzania the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (Somafco).

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Sauls, 2013. In an interview recorded on 8 July, Cape Town. Cecyl Esau, in an interview recorded on 28 October 2013, Cape Town.

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Published

2016-10-11

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Articles