Asimbonanga

Asimbonanga is Zulu for we have not seen him. When Johnny Clegg's band Savuka released the song as a 12-inch single in 1986, Nelson Mandela had been in prison since 1962 on Robben Island. The song turned that absence into a chorus, sung in Zulu, while the English verses named other figures of the struggle: Steve Biko, Victoria Mxenge and Neil Aggett. Savuka, whose name means awakening, was a mixed band of three Black and three white South Africans, drawing on Zulu tradition as well as Celtic music and rock. Clegg had already been in trouble with the authorities for his work with Zulu musician Sipho Mchunu, and the open dedication of Asimbonanga brought more. Savuka's concerts were raided, the band members were arrested repeatedly, and the song was among several of Clegg's that were banned in South Africa. It still found its audience: it reached number two in France, and the United Democratic Front adopted it as an anthem. Joan Baez later recorded a version that earned her a Grammy nomination. Later, the song's premise was overturned on stage. At a Clegg concert in 1999, Mandela, now free and president, walked on stage during Asimbonanga and danced while the band played. Afterwards he said that music and dancing made him at peace with the world, and asked them to play it again. A song about a man nobody could see ended with him standing right there in front of everyone.