Johnny Clegg

Johnny Clegg

Jonathan Paul Clegg, (7 June 1953 – 16 July 2019) was a South African musician, singer-songwriter, dancer, anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist. He first performed as part of a duo - Johnny & Sipho - with Sipho Mchunu which released its first single, Woza Friday in 1976. The two then went on to form the band Juluka which released its debut album in 1979. In 1986, Clegg founded the band Savuka, and also recorded as a solo act, occasionally reuniting with his earlier band partners. Sometimes called Le Zoulou Blanc, (for "The White Zulu"), he was an important figure in South African popular music and a prominent white figure in the resistance to apartheid, becoming for a period the subject of investigation by the security branch of the South African Police. His songs mixed English with Zulu lyrics, and also combined idioms of traditional African music with those of modern Western styles. Clegg was born on 7 June 1953 in Bacup, Lancashire, to an English father of Scottish descent, Dennis Clegg, and a Rhodesian mother, Muriel (Braudo). Clegg's mother's family were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, and Clegg had a secular Jewish upbringing, learning about the Ten Commandments but refusing to have a bar mitzvah or even associate with other Jewish children at school. He moved with his mother to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) at age 6 months, and his parents divorced soon afterwards. At age six, he moved to South Africa with his mother, also spending part of a year in Israel during his childhood. As an adolescent in Johannesburg's northern suburbs, he encountered the demi-monde of the city's Zulu migrant workers' music and dance. Under the tutelage of Charlie Mzila, a flat cleaner by day and musician by night, Clegg mastered both the Zulu language and the maskandi guitar and the isishameni dance styles of the migrants. Clegg's involvement with black musicians often led to arrests for trespassing on government property and for contravening the Group Areas Act. He was first arrested at the age of 15 for violating apartheid-era laws in South Africa banning people of different races from congregating together after curfew hours. At the age of 16, he met Sipho Mchunu, a Zulu migrant worker with whom he began performing music. The partnership, which they named Juluka, began in 1969, and was profiled in the 1970s television documentary Beats of the Heart: Rhythm of Resistance. After graduating with a BA(Hons) in Social Anthropology from the University of Witwatersrand, Clegg pursued an academic career for four years where he lectured and wrote several seminal scholarly papers on Zulu music and dance. In the early stages of his musical career, Clegg combined his music with the study of anthropology at Wits, where he was influenced by the work of David Webster, a social anthropologist who was later assassinated in 1989. He preceded each song with snippets of Zulu culture, information, commentary, humor and personal anecdotes relevant and unique to that song, occasionally also incorporating aspects of his Jewish roots in songs such as "Jericho", "Jarusalema" and "Warsaw 1943". ... Source: Article "Johnny Clegg" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

  • Title: Johnny Clegg
  • Popularity: 0.23
  • Known For: Acting
  • Birthday: 1953-06-07
  • Place of Birth: Bacup, Lancashire, England, UK
  • Homepage:
  • Also Known As: Jonathan Clegg
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Johnny Clegg Movies

  • 1990
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    Songololo: Voices of Change

    Songololo: Voices of Change

    1 1990 HD

    Songololo: Voices of Change is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Marianne Kaplan and released in 1990.An examination of South Africa in the...

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  • 1970
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    Celebrating 30 Years of Johnny Clegg: Spirit is the Journey

    Celebrating 30 Years of Johnny Clegg: Spirit is the Journey

    1 1970 HD

    Jonathan Paul Clegg, was a South African musician, singer-songwriter, dancer, anthropologist and anti-apartheid activist. He was a close friend of...

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  • 1990
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    One World, One Voice

    One World, One Voice

    1 1990 HD

    An extraordinary music special is the climax to One World week. The brainchild of ex-10cc drummer Kevin Godley, it features the first true global...

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  • 2007
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    Johnny Clegg - Live At The Nelson Mandela Theatre

    Johnny Clegg - Live At The Nelson Mandela Theatre

    1 2007 HD

    Bo-hum! The Zoulou Blanc keeps his hand in with his take on Zulu style. A friendly, sing-along 16 track collection, this local story features songs...

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  • 2019
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    Johnny Clegg, le Zoulou blanc

    Johnny Clegg, le Zoulou blanc

    1 2019 HD

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  • 1970
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    A Conversaton with Johnny Clegg

    A Conversaton with Johnny Clegg

    1 1970 HD

    South African award-winning singer, songwriter activist, and anthropologist Johnny Clegg speaks at Dartmouth College.

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  • 1985
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    Victoires de la musique

    Victoires de la musique

    2 1985 HD

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  • 1975
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    Saturday Night Live

    Saturday Night Live

    6.934 1975 HD

    A late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture...

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  • 1992
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    Coucou c'est nous !

    Coucou c'est nous !

    6.5 1992 HD

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  • 1982
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    Champs-Elysées

    Champs-Elysées

    6.2 1982 HD

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  • 1987
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    Le monde est à vous

    Le monde est à vous

    1 1987 HD

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  • 1998
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    Vivement dimanche

    Vivement dimanche

    3.2 1998 HD

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