ZwelinzimaVavi's tribute to Luckey Dube 24-10-07

 

Zwelinzima Vavi tribute to Lucky Dube 24 October 2007

Do you ever worry about your house being broken into?

Do you ever worry about your car being taken away from you?

Do you ever worry about leaving home and coming back in a coffin, with a bullet through your head?

So join us and fight this.

When Lucky Dube penned these lyrics he was underlining the fact that all of us face the possibility of being affected by the scourge of crime ravaging our country. Lucky Dube used his talent and popularity to drive a number of messages home.

He represented the type of a cultural activist we like to see - an artist who uses his or her talents to talk directly to issues affecting the people - be they political issues or socio economic conditions. In his own words he proclaimed: "My songs are based on real-life situations and experiences." That is the calibre of artist we are bidding our last farewell to!

Another song I liked by Lucky Dube has the following lyrics: "What type of a rich man you are who does not care about the poor people?" This song underlines the gulf between rich and poor in our society and the uncaring attitude of the rich to the plight of the poor. These types of songs at times pit activists against the powerful recording companies.

Artists face a daily struggle to maintain their creative work against the commercial pressures from powerful recording companies who are interested in chasing profit. Artists are forced to change their careers and abandon their messages to satisfy the insatiable god of profiteering.

Lucky Dube defied this and for this he paid dearly - there was a virtual blackout of his music. We were inspired by his perseverance until the end - his courage and his refusal to succumb to the whims of fashion and profit must be emulated.

I want to join many voices that have correctly pointed out that South Africa only celebrates and appreciate her treasures when they are dead. This is another sad reminder of how we do not treasure our artists. Lucky Dube was one of the most successful musicians to come out of our shores. At some point I learnt he sold more music to the world than here at home.

Yet at the home front we could hardly hear his songs on our radio stations or television until the day he died. How ironic that it took his death for his face to be splashed on front pages of the newspapers and television. Yet, this award-winning artist did not get adequate airplay when he was alive.

Unfortunately this speaks to the broader problem that artists themselves have highlighted. Our media are conveyor belts of cultural imperialism - feeding our young mostly foreign music. Our culture and traditional music have been relegated to the dustbin. We have nothing against foreign music but we must promote our local music with even more vigour!

I had an interesting discussion with my 14-year niece, who hardly speaks an African language. She wanted to know, 'What is umbhaqanga?' That discussion soon revealed that she did not know who David Masondo of Soul Brothers or Simon Nkabinde popularly known as Mahlathini were. But she knew John Legend and Beyonce and their latest songs. That is what she listened to on radio or downloaded to her cell phones.

When last did you hear a song by Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and many others whom we recognise as legends? Are these icons only fit to be paraded in a cultural museum? Must they now also join those who pay payola to get their music played? Are we are waiting for the day they die to celebrate their talents. This is a shame!

Lucky Dube's death at the hand of callous criminals is a sad reminder that even under democracy many artists who helped bring about change still face daunting challenges that they must overcome.

Our government is still not doing much to support independent culture. The reason we are force-fed foreign music is that we doing little to support and develop our arts and culture. The people's arts remain underfunded, both within community institutions such as community centres, local theatre groups, music groups, and as "local" cultural forms of expression, including creative works in most of our national languages, traditional dance and music, and oral poetry and literature.

Much more must still be done to stamp out the growing industry of fake music. This music, sold much cheaper than originals, steaks bread from artists and their families. Again it is the big criminal syndicates that take advantage of our weak controls. They flood our country with counterfeit goods. It is they who employ the desperate foreigners and locals to sell at the traffic lights and elsewhere.

We recognise the efforts of the Department of Arts and Culture under Dr Pallo Jordan to turn this situation around, but more can and must be done. But we must hurry to point out that in Cuba, as early as 1959, several new cultural institutions were founded that would become important to the development of art and culture across Latin America. These developments enhanced the life of the Cuban people.

But what has most characterised cultural development in Cuba is the massive participation and access to arts and culture that is available to the Cuban people. Where are our similar institutions 13 years after democracy? We say this knowing that our South African government is doing everything it can to draw lessons from relevant international experiences. But at the same time we say - hurry up before all that makes us, the people of South Africa, disappear.

All these issues talk to the domination by six multi-national companies - BMG, EMI, Universal, PolyGram, Sony and Warner - who between them accounted for 78% of global sales in value terms in 1996 and not much has changed since. It is the existence and the domination of these monopolies that create this dominance of foreign culture possible.

It is this domination that breeds conditions of near slavery, casualisation and poor working conditions for so many of our cultural workers. These multinational corporations provide little space to local artists to express themselves, to develop and portray our values and aspirations as Africans and as working people.

We have in the past raised a number of questions that still have to be answered by the artists themselves and the industry. Why do most of our artists die poor when the owners of the multinationals remain unbelievably rich?

Why is there lack of progress in equity and transformation of the creative industry, across all sectors? We want to see a situation where the entire industry has been transformed to a level where black artists have ownership of the value chain of the industry; and an industry where black artists, not business managers, decide what we create.

We need to challenge the power and domination of these multinationals. One way of doing that is through the state, which can provide funding for popular culture, including the content of the public broadcaster. Another avenue is through the development of co-operative production facilities, which can provide alternative employment and production of culture. Even these co-ops will at least initially require state support. We need to be creative and courageous in developing demands and proposals in these areas.

Let us use Lucky Dube's untimely death to mobilise our society behind these cultural workers claims.

Let this be a wake-up call for us to turn the tide of violent crime that is robbing us of our finest sons and daughters. This atrocity highlights the grim reality of the daily carnage on our streets, the main victims of which are working people and the poor. Criminals are threatening all the gains we have made over 13 years. Let us unite to make our streets and home safe from these thugs!

COSATU members and all South Africans will never forget Lucky Dube. His music will live on in our hearts forever. We express our deep felt condolences to his family and fans - we share your pain and grief. Hamba Kahle, Lucky Dube!