South Africa's Fees Must Fall Student Protest Movement & Its Struggle Songs

Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post provides information about South Africa's 2015 and 2016 "Fees Must Fall" student movement.

Information about South Africa's "struggle songs" in the "Fees Must Fall" movement is also included in this post.

****

The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.Thanks also to all those who were involved in the Fees Must Fall movement and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post..

****

INFORMATION ABOUT THE FEES MUST FALL PROTEST MOVEMENT

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FeesMustFall

#FeesMustFall was a student-led protest movement[6] that began in mid-October 2015 in South Africa. The goals of the movement were to stop increases in student fees as well as to increase government funding of universities. The movements were started and led by the SRC leader of the University of Witwatersrand of 2015, Shaeera Kalla….

[...]

Date:  12 October 2015 – October 2016

Location:  South Africa[1]

Caused by: An increase in fees by South African universities

Methods:    Protest

Resulted in: No university fee increases in 2016

Over R 800 million in property damage[2] (roughly equivalent to US$59 million)

Increased government funding for universities

-snip-
For more information about the "Fees Must Fall" protest movement, click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/11/south-africas-fees-must-fall-movement.html for the 2015 pancocojams post entitled "South African University Students' #FeesMustFall Movement (information, videos, & comments)

****

INFORMATION ABOUT SOUTH AFRICAN STRUGGLE SONGS IN THE FEES MUST FALL UNIVERSITY STUDENT PROTEST MOVEMENT
Excerpt #1:
From https://www.mediaforjustice.net/understanding-the-struggle-songs-of-fees-must-fall/

Understanding the Struggle Songs of Fees Must Fall; February 2, 2016 by Media for Justice

"Arguably the most motivating and uniting proponent of the struggle. Struggle songs are a major characteristic of South Afrikan struggles emanating from the pre 1994 struggles. Of course most of the songs have been recently modified to fit the context of our present day circumstances. However the meaning and significance of these songs, together with their history and origins continue to be pivotal to the struggle. During the #FeesMustFall and #EndOutsourcing protests and demonstrations, a number of struggle songs- popular and not so very popular or at least at the initiation of the protests- played a very effective role in perpetuating perseverance and motivating the movement to continue, irrespective of the challenges encountered.

[...]

One surprising factor is that: from all the students’ organisations, it is predominantly males who lead songs. Something that I’m by the way against, because everywhere else, women lead songs, and they do so beautifully (churches & mix gender choirs to mention a few)

[...]

There have been robust arguments during the struggle around which song takes the award for song of the year. The battle was between two songs which I hope not that their lyrics are all over exam scripts around the country. This is a battle between Shiwelele and Solomon....

Iyoooooooh Solomon

This is a song that commemorates the life of a struggle hero Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. The lyrics of the song give a brief history of the late MK militant who left the country to be trained as an MK operative in Angola and Mozambique. This was following the 1976 Soweto uprisings which he was not part of. He came back to the country via Swaziland in 1977. Solomon Mahlangu was arrested and executed by the apartheid government. He died at the age of 22 and his most famous quote is a very inspiring one which states “tell my people that I love them and they must continue the fight, my blood will nourish the tree that will bear the fruits of freedom, aluta continua.” The song says that Solomon was a soldier of uMkhonto Wesizwe who killed the “boers” all around Afrika. This is a song which not only gives young leaders in the struggle courage, but also brings out the brave side of each comrade in the struggle.

Shiweeeeeelele
Shiwelele is one not rich in history, it has been very popular following the establishment of the Economic Freedom Fighters Students’ Command (EFFSC). Peter Keetse is the national spokesperson of the EFFSC and those who’ve been lucky enough to hear him lead the song will tell you that he does so exceptionally and brilliantly. Lyrically, the song speaks to the issues of students, but has since been modified to accommodate workers as well. The most prominent lines in the song is “We are going to learn by force” (sizo funda ngenkani) which was altered to suit the workers and became “We are going to earn by force” (sizo gola ngenkani).  It also calls on students to come together and unite (bafundi hlanganani). The song finally taunts management, saying either “management is playing with us” or “a component of the system is playing with us”. By “us” it is referring to the protesters, the poor and working class. A part excluded from the song by the FeesMustFall movement is the “commander thethelela” part, this is because the movement had not an elected leader who was seen as standing out in the forefront. This is a song that will in the future continue to be sung in students’ and workers’ protests due to its relevance to the present day struggles."...
-snip-

This article lists various "Fees Must Fall" struggle songs including "Iyoooooooh Solomon", "Shiweeeeeelele", “Amalungelo (thina si lwela amalungelo wethu)“Elilizwe lo khokho bethu, elilizwe la bantu aba mnyama”“Gudala si sebenzela amabunu” and “thina senza nje ma sifuna imali”. 

****
Excerpt #2:
From https://mg.co.za/article/2017-10-13-00-struggle-songs-let-us-be-heard/ Struggle songs let us be heard, by Mbe Mbhele 13 Oct 2017

..."Why do people often resort to music or song during protests and in moments of struggle? This is one of the questions the Black Thought Symposium wanted to answer when they initiated a project called Ingoma Yomzabalazo.

A group of students, lecturers and artists at the University of the Witwatersrand established the symposium to critically explore the ideas surrounding race, politics and culture. The collective is also interested in using different kinds of aesthetics to give an account of the black experience.

The Ingoma Yomzabalazo project began at the height of the #FeesMustFall protests and aimed to spark a conversation about struggle songs and what they might mean. At its inception, the project sought to find ways to speak about how song has been used as a form of resistance.

In the collective imagination of many South Africans, songs of struggle are venerated. For many in this country, a protest without song is simply not a protest at all. It is something that South Africans seem to have internalised, and the #FeesMustFall movement was an example of this.

But what did it mean for students to sing about the debates surrounding decolonisation and transformation? Was the singing a way to heal a people who have had to endure centuries of suffering? Does this form of singing serve only to gather people under one roof, or is it just a form of disruption, as many media reports have suggested?

These are indeed difficult questions and the answers will undoubtedly differ depending on who one speaks to. Answers to these questions are further frustrated by the limited literature or work done on struggle songs and their meaning. The vague history of struggle songs and the ambiguity of their meaning shows how much work still has to be done to work through the labyrinth that is the song in struggle.

If anything has been clear about these songs, it is that they are not just about reliving our experiences, not just about nostalgia and history. Rather, they are the way we relate to ourselves as a nation. It is where we recreate and reconfigure who we are and how we want to be as a country. Struggle songs become a theatre of our desires and an arena of our fantasies.

[...]

Struggle songs can become a passage through which we become alive and renew. With liberation songs, people have been able to articulate views that they have rarely had the opportunity to express at conferences and in the decision-making bodies of their political parties.

Struggle songs are by far the most democratic process that exists in protest and social movements — when people sing together, the call-and-response structure of revolutionary songs allows for collective engagement.

[...]

But perhaps the most powerful aspect of liberation songs, and indeed of music more generally, is their ability to create connections between large numbers of people. Music is a temporal art form, that is to say it unfolds over time. Unlike the visual arts, music is able to structure time through rhythm and pulse, and in doing so lay the foundations for participation and collectivity.

Through song, we are able to theorise while struggling and fighting. We are able to strategise while in the picket lines. When students sang Mbobo vuleka (loosely translated “open the hole”) during the protests, everyone knew the implicit message — that people should attack or prepare to attack; no one needed to explain or dictate what should be done.

Using different songs, the protesters were able to create a language and a structured way of communication that they all understood. Furthermore, struggle songs within the #FeesMustFall movement showed how some of the hierarchies and cries of resistance that evolved out of the brutality of colonialism and apartheid still exist today.

Although new songs have been composed over the years in response to contemporary struggles, some of the songs have remained largely unchanged, deployed by a socially and politically engaged civil society to address South Africa’s post-liberation contentions."...
-snip-
The lyrics for "Nobody Wanna See Us Together" can be mistaken for a love song. However, -the title itself and its repeated words "Nobody wanna see us together" can also refer to the student movement. Also, the lyrics from Bob Marley's Reggae song "Buffalo Soldier" reinforce the revolutionary nature of the "Nobody Wanna See Us Together" song.
 -snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_in_the_movement_against_apartheid for information about struggle songs in South Africa's apartheid protest movement. 

****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.