Resistance Is Defence
Mzwakhe Mbuli
Virgin Earthworks through Larrikin Records
Available on CD and cassette
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
Through the mid-'80s South African police were constantly embarrassed and infuriated by the phantom-like appearances and the booming poetry of Mzwakhe Mbuli at liberation movement gatherings. As suddenly as he would appear, he would melt into the applauding throng.
The ability of this seven-foot-tall griot to evade arrest for more than two years, yet materialise to electrify and inspire with his messages of freedom, defiance and struggle made Mbuli a legend in the eye's of South Africa's oppressed majority, who dubbed him the "People's Poet".
Resistance Is Defence sets these powerful polemics to the irresistible Mbaqanga beat of South Africa's sprawling townships. His pounding, uncompromising poems are recited, sung, then recited again. Words of praise for the freedom movement and its leaders and condemnation of apartheid and racism swing from Zulu to English, from Xhosa to Venda.
"Uyeyeni" accosts those who refuse to join the struggle with a blunt vehemence: "How much pain should we suffer before you join us?". "Tshipfinga" appeals to liberated South Africa's leaders: "When you govern the country, when you address the nation on television, remember those who died".
The undoubted high point, musically and politically, is the beautiful jazz-soaked "Stalwarts", which pays homage to the many leaders of South Africa's freedom struggle.
Mzwakhe Mbuli was born in the Sophiatown community as it was about to be physically torn apart because the apartheid regime so feared this haven of non-racial urban culture. Mbuli, like millions of other "young lions", was politicised in the maelstrom 1976 youth uprising.
In 1981, he recited some of his poems at the funeral of a fallen comrade. Inspired, people called upon him more and more to lift their spirits on such occasions.
Hunted by the police, in 1985 he recorded his first album, Change Is Pain, in which his remarkable blend of freedom verse and township jive debuted. "I thought, rather than rotting underground, let me do something", Mbuli told Jazziz magazine recently.
The Botha regime immediately banned Change Is Pain, but the few copies that existed were taped, passed from hand to hand and played until worn out. It was smuggled out of the country and released in Europe and the US.
Seized by the police in 1988, Mbuli spent six harrowing months in solitary, which is where he composed his second album, The Unbroken Spirit. "I have still not fully recovered from the 1988 experience", he confessed to Jazziz. "Things happen while I am asleep, nightmares and other things. There are things that make my
Mbuli recounted how The Unbroken Spirit came about: "Most of the poems and songs are the product of prison. I was not allowed to keep a pen and paper in the cell. I was compelled to use my mind as a memory bank. When I was released, I went straight to the studio to record." The album went gold despite its total boycott by radio and TV.
Mbuli formed a permanent group in 1990 and has filled huge stadiums and toured Europe and the US. Resistance Is Change is a massive hit and Mbuli's most widely available album to date.
Resistance Is Defence is a remarkable work by a remarkable man. It deserves a place in the collection of anyone committed to a free South Africa, everyone who loves great music and messages that matter.