Music Wednesday: South African Music

It's halfway through the week, and most of us are getting tired. So I figure Wednesday is a good day for some uplifting music. Besides, relaxation can help us become more innovative thinkers! If you enjoy this Music Wednesday, I would be more than happy to make this a blogging tradition of mine.

Moving on...

I am more than a little biased when it comes to the video above featuring Vusi Mahlasela performing with Dave Matthews Band [DMB/Dave]. My family and I have been listening to a version of DMB's Everyday with Vusi for probably a couple years now [it's one of my dad's favorites]. Not to mention I have been to 7 Dave concerts, and I currently have 607 Dave songs in iTunes. [In case you were wondering, my love for DMB stems from my older brother and cousin.] Even if you hate DMB, watch the video. Vusi is entertaining up until the last second of the song. The dancing really steps up after about 5:15 in the video, so you can always skip to that.

Vusi is a native South African just like Dave Matthews who is from Johannesburg. The "About Vusi" part of his website begins by saying, "Vusi Mahlasela, is simply known as 'The Voice' in his home-country, South Africa, celebrated for his distinct, powerful voice and his poetic, optimistic lyrics. His songs of hope connect Apartheid-scarred South Africa with its promise for a better future." If you do not know about the violent racism of apartheid in South Africa, you need to. The disturbing part of this product of colonialism is that it was not dismantled until 1993, and its effects are still evident today. I learned about the destruction of the apartheid in South Africa in my History of Africa Since 1800 class last semester. In his book The African Experience: An Intoduction, Vincent B. Khapoya says, "It was the place where the humiliation and the degradation of African people has been articulated as an ideology, codified into law and institutionalized as the system of apartheid." For an easy, short read about the effects of apartheid in S.Africa, I recommend Peter Abrahams' novel Mine Boy,which is a novel that exposes the conditions that blacks in S.Africa endured through the story of a young mine worker.

As an activist for his fellow Africans, Vusi is lucky to have survived and thrived after apartheid. His work and music is very significant in that context. Besides, he is a hilarious dancer and excellent singer. Here are a couple more Vusi videos (without DMB):

Live at the S.Africa World Cup last summer

Live at a TED Global Conference

Enjoy trying to learn Vusi's dance moves!