Johnny Clegg & Savuka

Born in Rochdale, Lancashire, England, on 7 June 1953, Jonathan Clegg moved with his family to South Africa in 1959. By ten he had developed a deep passion for African music, above all its Zulu forms, first sparked by street performer Mntonanazo, who often appeared in his neighborhood. While studying social anthropology at Wits University he met migrant worker and musician Sipho Mchunu, born in 1951 in Kranskop, Natal, South Africa; the pair began performing as Johnny And Sipho in 1972 and assembled the six-piece Juluka—Zulu for “sweat”—four years later.

The group quickly forged a striking blend of intense mbaqanga rhythms and broad pop melodies. Although most black South Africans welcomed a white musician’s embrace of Zulu traditions, white audiences largely reacted with hostility, and Juluka endured constant friction with officials through racist harassment, threats, and a chronic lack of performance spaces under laws that effectively banned multiracial gatherings. Despite these barriers the band secured its first hit, the single “Woza Friday,” in 1978, having already built a nationwide audience with explosive concerts that featured Clegg’s authentic renditions of traditional Zulu indlamu foot-stamping dance. They also obtained permission to perform abroad, appearing across the UK, Europe, and the United States, where the 1982 album Scatterlings reached American listeners in 1984.

Over its lifespan Juluka issued seven albums, among them the widely praised debut Universal Men, a song cycle tracing the experiences of a Zulu migrant worker, before disbanding in 1985 when Mchunu left Johannesburg and the music industry to manage his family’s small cattle farm in the bush. That same year the single “Scatterlings Of Africa” reached Europe’s Top 40. Clegg resurfaced in 1986 with the new ensemble Savuka—“We Have Arisen”—which extended Juluka’s musical path and benefited from the easing political restrictions of late-1980s South Africa, allowing freer touring at home and overseas.

Although Clegg’s solo career had opened with the 1985 release Third World Child, it was Savuka’s album of the same name that achieved global success, exceeding one million copies sold. A sold-out French tour followed, along with engagements in the United States and Canada that placed Clegg among the first African artists to appear on The Johnny Carson Show. The 1989 album Cruel, Crazy Beautiful World was tracked in a contemporary Los Angeles studio, yet Clegg’s unflinching commentary on South African life remained intact in tracks such as “Woman Be My Country” and the title song.

One more Savuka album, 1993’s Heat, Dust And Dreams, reflected both the dismantling of apartheid and the murder of former band member Dudu. In the mid-1990s Clegg rejoined Sipho Mchunu for tours and recordings under the Juluka name, then returned to solo activity by the decade’s end. He reentered the studio for the 2002 solo album New World Survivor, while the following year’s A South African Story preserved a memorable performance at the Nelson Mandela Theatre.