When was johnny clegg born

This brought them into conflict with Group Areas Act which enforced the geographical separation of race groups and their cultural facilities. At this time they could only play in private venues as the law forbade mixed race performances in public venues and spaces.

Testing the law, they played at universities, church halls, migrant labour hostels and even in the lounges of private houses.

The battle ground of public versus private performances was often challenged by the security police who attempted to close these down whenever they could.

Many shows were closed down but not enough to prevent the emergence of a substantial following of students and migrant workers. In late their first album, Universal Men, was released. The album was a musical journey into the life of the Zulu migrant worker, living and working in the city, but continually journeying home, caught between two different worlds. A second album, African Litany, came out two years later and was greeted with critical acclaim.

Juluka worked hard to maintain the basic framework of their music on this album, but allowed themselves the freedom to explore broader aspects of the South African experience. His excellent contribution to and achievement in the field of bridging African traditional music with other music forms, promoting racial understanding among racially divided groups in South Africa under difficult apartheid conditions, working for a non-racial society and being an outstanding spokesperson for the release of political prisoners.

His mother later married a South African journalist. Between his mother a cabaret and jazz singer and his stepfather a crime reporter , Clegg was exposed to a broader cultural perspective than that available to his peers.

As it was illegal for racially mixed bands to perform in South Africa during the apartheid era, their first album, Universal Men, received no air play on the state-owned SABC, but it became a word-of-mouth hit. The song Scatterlings of Africa charted in England and France, where Clegg was particularly celebrated. The hit Asimbonanga, a tribute to Nelson Mandela, who at the time had been imprisoned on Robben Island for over two decades , was one of the high points of a glittering career.

He asked Clegg to resume his performance and urged the audience to get up and dance. The band took up the successful path laid by Juluka, including Asimbonanga on the album Third World Child, but broke up after group member Dudu Zulu was shot dead in After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in , Clegg cut down on his public performances while undergoing treatment, which won him a period of respite.

In late , he embarked on a farewell tour called The Final Journey that took him to 12 cities in North America before circling back to Africa. But Juluka succeeded, helped by their powerful Afro-pop songs that were of course banned from the state radio. Clegg was told he would expelled from the union if he returned to work in South Africa, and that all their earnings from the British tour had to be given to the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

He replied that it seemed that the union would be happier if the group disbanded and its members became political refugees. Juluka did disband in , because Mchunu was fed up with touring and wanted to concentrate on cattle farming. Police raided a radio station that dared to play Asimbonanga , which became an anti-apartheid anthem and helped Clegg to become an international star. The song was covered by Joan Baez, and became a massive hit across continental Europe, especially in France, where Clegg and Savuka became a major commercial success, outselling even Michael Jackson in the late s.

The UK was a different matter. Once Mandela was free, the cultural boycott no longer existed, so Clegg was able to play at a second massive Wembley event, the International Tribute for a Free South Africa in , at which Mandela made his first speech in the UK following his release.