In my paper, I will return to and expand on scholarly works that have previously examined the significance of pop music and resistance in Apartheid South Africa. I will explore the important role that popular music played in the resistance movement during the anti-Apartheid period (1948-1991) of urban South African history. Zenzile Miriam Makeba (1932-2008), also known as Mama Africa is one of the most prominent singers and activists in the anti-apartheid struggle. Makeba began her professional singing career around the same time the Afrikaner Nationalist government came into power. She contributed to musical genres including Afropop and jazz. Three songs which have brought her the most international attention in the United States and Europe include: “Pata Pata,” the “Click Song” in English (“Qongqothwane” in Xhosa) and “Into the Yam;” all performed in the “click” sounds of her native Xhosa language. Makeba made 30 original albums, 19 compilation albums and in 1966, she became the first African artist to receive a Grammy Award. The influential scale of Makeba’s work is in itself a counter to Black erasure. Additionally, her linguistic performance challenges the epistemological erasure of the Black feminist presence in South Africa. As an affirmation of Blackness, the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) began as an ideological symbol of beauty, creativity, competence and diversification. In this paper, I will argue that three of Makeba’s musical performances released in the 50s and 60s create space for the Black feminist perspective prior to the public rise of the BCM in the 70s. The coded movements, sensory aesthetics and the body’s sonics that Makeba shares with her audience serves as a precursor to the BCM as a whole. It is necessary to examine how Makeba is a pioneer of the BCM as it will further contextualize the importance of its creation as a symbol of equitable socio-political practices in South Africa and beyond. Makeba never sang in Afrikaans and rarely in English–– the language of the Apartheid government in South Africa–– instead, she primarily sang in Xhosa, Sotho and Zulu. As a result, this paper asks: What are Makeba’s songs sung in Xhosa “doing” to linguistically resist the South African Apartheid regime and promote key ideological elements of Black Consciousness? Other future potential research questions to consider include: How can discursive and visual depictions of Makeba’s image be used as a lens to explore Black and female South African voices in Steve Biko’s notion of the Black Consciousness Movement (as described in his text, Steve Biko: Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1978)?, and how is Makeba’s linguistic and musical performance a form of protest that is relevant to contemporary conversations about the Black liberation struggle?

In terms of my methodology–– examining the anti-Apartheid period prior to the development of Biko’s notion of the BCM through Makeba’s three visual performances from the lens of African historiography, Black feminist theory and performance studies will allow me as the researcher to use an interdisciplinary approach to analyze embodiment, examine audience reception, and further explore the complex socio-political environment of the anti-Apartheid era in South Africa. Analyzing these aspects of BC and artistic anti-Apartheid resistance strategies can reveal layers that might be missed in a purely linguistic analysis. Some potential limitations of this paper include: 1) although I have a nuanced understanding of Makeba’s relationship to Xhosa, I do not have direct experience reading, writing or speaking these languages, nor an ability to directly translate this content, and 2) as a result of my first point, I will focus on a seemingly “subjective” examination of “linguistic expression;” how language is used to convey meaning, emotion or intention, rather than a seemingly “objective” investigation of “linguistic analysis;” rooted in objective investigations and identifying structural patterns of grammar and semantics.