Johnny Clegg

Jonathan Paul Clegg, OBE OIS (7 June 1953 – 16 July 2019) was a British and 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 working class African music with various forms of Western popular music.