Music Monday: Johnny Clegg

I know many of us were saddened to hear of Nelson Mandela's passing last week. The 1999 performance of Johnny Clegg's song "Asimbonanga" (We Haven't Seen Him), seemed a fitting choice for this post. The song was written as a call to release the main figures of the liberation struggle from their imprisonment.  I love this performance because of Mandela's ineffable smile.

Johnny Clegg, while born British, is a musician worth noting in South African music history. As a bi-racial band, their music was controversial at their onset in the 1970's and was basically banned from the airwaves during the apartheid era. I often enjoy his songs because he mixes Western music styles with English and Zulu lyrics, which is unlike anything else I've ever heard.