2008 Woodie Awards
'The Voice' gives voice to history
Vusi sings for freedom and the struggle against injustice
Penny Chen
Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: Arts
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Walking out on stage in an oversized button-down shirt on top of a black t-shirt, dress pants and shoes, Vusi Mahlasela, seemed just as poised and at ease as any of the usual guests of classical music performing at the Middlebury College Center for the Arts. After settling in on the piano bench with his guitar, he broke the silence with a series of arpeggiated chords. However, it was not until he began humming with a voice resonant and powerful, yet gentle-sounding like a lullaby, did the audience come to full attention to the man on stage. It was no surprise - back home in South Africa, Vusi is known simply as "The Voice."
For the next hour and a half, Vusi Vusi performed songs in English and a variety of African languages, joked around with the audience, recounted stories of the Apartheid Movement in South Africa and emphasized the importance of human rights, forgiveness and compassion. His wide display of vocal textures and range captivated the entire audience.
The majority of the songs that Vusi's played were politically infused, describing the injustices being done in South Africa with "the police playing with dead corpses," as well as other global ramifications of cross-national injustices. He sang about the effects that the influence of the United States, the country that "[speaks] of Texas and Oil…" had on their neighbors. They also gave voice to those who wanted to heal after the bloody apartheid movement, which gripped South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990's.
Apartheid, which means "apartness" or "separateness" in Afrikaans, one of the many languages spoken in South Africa, was a system of racial segregation that began when the National Party in the country won the national election in 1948. It included legislation prohibiting mixed marriages and interracial sex, as well as laws splitting schools, buses, hospitals, beaches and many other facilities by race. During this period and until the 1990's, black South Africans were relocated into "colored neighborhoods," and if they were caught without a valid pass in a white neighborhood, they would be deported back to the their "homeland." After decades of underground resistance, violent uprisings and multiple attempts by the government to crush anti-apartheid insurgencies, the oppressed people of South Africa finally began to see change, beginning in December of 1991 with the Convention for a Democratic South Africa's draft for a multiracial transitional government.
For the next hour and a half, Vusi Vusi performed songs in English and a variety of African languages, joked around with the audience, recounted stories of the Apartheid Movement in South Africa and emphasized the importance of human rights, forgiveness and compassion. His wide display of vocal textures and range captivated the entire audience.
The majority of the songs that Vusi's played were politically infused, describing the injustices being done in South Africa with "the police playing with dead corpses," as well as other global ramifications of cross-national injustices. He sang about the effects that the influence of the United States, the country that "[speaks] of Texas and Oil…" had on their neighbors. They also gave voice to those who wanted to heal after the bloody apartheid movement, which gripped South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990's.
Apartheid, which means "apartness" or "separateness" in Afrikaans, one of the many languages spoken in South Africa, was a system of racial segregation that began when the National Party in the country won the national election in 1948. It included legislation prohibiting mixed marriages and interracial sex, as well as laws splitting schools, buses, hospitals, beaches and many other facilities by race. During this period and until the 1990's, black South Africans were relocated into "colored neighborhoods," and if they were caught without a valid pass in a white neighborhood, they would be deported back to the their "homeland." After decades of underground resistance, violent uprisings and multiple attempts by the government to crush anti-apartheid insurgencies, the oppressed people of South Africa finally began to see change, beginning in December of 1991 with the Convention for a Democratic South Africa's draft for a multiracial transitional government.