rebecca

warning: very cringe ramble incoming

i've liked him for ages bc of what he represented and stood for and because he was such a tangible link back to south africa, but i only knew like 4 of his songs, and then this year i started listening to more of his stuff and oml

i think he's been my favourite for a while but i just never considered the fact that my 'fav band/singer/musician/music artist of all time' could change; for my whole life (all eighteen warped years of it), my favourite band/singer has been dire straits/mark knopfler (his solo stuff), and i grew up with that music (much more than johnny clegg, who's music i first heard when i was about ten) so it was not only my favourite because of the music itself, but because of it's significance and meaning to me.

but i realised today that i've listened to johnny clegg way more than i've listened to dire straits this year (i don't use spotify but if i did i'm 99% sure johnny clegg would be my top artist), and his music makes me feel ways that no other music has ever.

i think one of the first reasons i grew to love him so much is because growing up i felt much more connected to my south african roots rather than the english part of my nationality, but i felt a bit uncomfortable because i felt like people would judge me for claiming to be south african and being so involved in my family's culture when i was born and raised in england. this was actually less of an issue in secondary school, but it's definitely something i've been struggling with since i started sixth form; i took the change of school & location (my sixth form is in a whole different city to my secondary school) as a chance to reinvent myself, to become who i'd wanted to be all the years in secondary school when i felt too insecure, and this included being open about and embracing my south african roots. i loved it at first, and i largely still do, but there's always a small part of me that feels uncertain and wonders if i'm being too over the top and milking it too much - i do it because i genuinely love south africa (the country, the culture, the people) and i am proud to be 'from' there, but i do worry that i come across as pretentious and attention-seeking to others. johnny clegg's music helped me so much with this because it's so full of pure love and admiration of africa - it's geography, it's societies, it's cultures & traditions - and i really related to it because it felt like someone had taken all of my feelings, all the yearning i felt for south africa (i think i've been back maybe twice since 2014), and put it into music, made whole albums out of it - basically, he got it.

and then it's the way his songs are so full of emotion, not just in lyrics but in the music & melodies themselves - love and longing and loss and grief and joy and excitement and pride and friendship and injustice and peace and community and journeying and growth and a bone-deep yearning, for specific people and places (specifically africa) and times, and STANDING UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN (asimbonanga much), it feels like his music was written right out of his soul, and i can feel it in mine. i can go days and days with his lyrics in my head, and they mean more to me than any other song ever has. i want to get his lyrics tattooed on my heart, i want his songs to be playing in the background of my life as long as i live, i want to be able to listen to him in the best and the worst moments, and all the moments in between.

also shout out to all the respective members of savuka & juluka! the bands johnny formed to make his music, who i have infinite love and admiration for.

if you scroll back on my account a bit you'll see posts that are just random johnny clegg lyrics i like, and i might continue posting them because

will you join the swallows and fly away?’

i am a third world child.’

you are a child of africa, you are a wilderness.’

now rid of me.’