If you need one reason to be Proudly South African, MUSIC is
that one reason. Before freedom was what children were born into, the
government tried to take away homes, education, unity and lives but they couldn’t
take away their music. Even now we go through tough times as a country, but we
will always have our music. The main acts of the nights included Kurt Darren,
Steve Kekana and Johnny Clegg. Among these were other new and older acts that
lit up the stage with passion and drive.
Victor Masondo, the Musical Director, was the bass player as
well as the MC for the evening. He inspired the audience with his wise words. Throughout the evening, there were songs of
many languages, Victor said, we need to
“learn different languages to
understand each other rather than let it divide as we have so done before.”
He even joked about one of the songs “Kahulesa”
which was sung by Mama Dorothy Masuku, meaning hurry up. He joked saying that back in the day they
used to sing it to hide their beer away from the police when they came. A few
of them would sing and dance for the police singing Kahulesa, mean while the guys
in the back would hide their beer from the warning of the songs. Every story he told was light hearted, funny
and non-political or racist. He had a passion for music and South Africans as a
united front.
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| Mama Dorothy |
One of the songs that stood out the most for me was one of
the Reggae songs, with the words saying “Different colours, one people.”
Kurt Darren rocked the stage with crowd pleasers, mainly
Kaptein and Loslappie.
This really got the crowd going.
Johnny Clegg, started
off the second half, with Sipho Mchunu,
bought the crowd to their feet. Watching these two legends was one of the highlights of the evening. Clegg told a beautiful story about the past and the present.
Ending off with the legends was Steve Kekana,
came on stage and showed South Africa how it’s done. After he sang, Victor said
had spoken to Steve and in their conversation agreed that they do not feel
sorry for those who cannot see, but feel sorry for those who have no vision. I
agree with them. If we do not have vision we cannot move forward nor can we
embrace change for the better.
It was truly an honour watching the legends of South Africa.
I would never change my experience for anything. If there is ever one thing
that will bring us together and proudly so, music will be that uniting factor.
Always has been and always will be. It
is my personal opinion that if you need a glimpse of hope, faith, passion,
reason (and not just within our country but within yourself) go and see the
show.
The past was a struggle, the present is undetermined and the
future will be the change but music will always be there to guide and unite us.
Below are a few views from Twitter followers on the show
Written by Shannalee Doran
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