Amandla! Original Soundtrack

The inspirational songs and music featured on 'Amandla!' —, the soundtrack to the film directed by Lee Hirsh — span five decades of South African musical history.

Like David Grey will always remind me of Mongolia, or like the smell of Garnier Skin Toner makes me remember Nepal as if I walked the streets of Kathmandu yesterday, so this CD plonks me into a specific time and place in my past.

That time: Somewhere around the time of my life when I was playing marbles at first break at Seamount Primary. I had a secret den in the back garden and the latest Bros CD was all the rage.

Outside of my ridiculously comfortable ignorance-is-bliss life though, chaos prevailed. Bloody riots shook the streets, enforced segregation tore at the very heart of a nation and a hero went to jail.

This CD is a soundtrack to that chaos. A chaos that brought with it destruction and death as well as strength, courage, survival and beauty. It is a soundtrack of the ensuing freedom.

The beauty of the album lies in the fact that the songs encased on it bring to the fore a montage of very personal memories for the listener. It doesn’t remind me of apartheid as a whole or the news events of the era. It reminds me of how I experienced them. While I can’t pretend to have lived through what most of the lyrics proclaim, flashes of my own life explode as the CD spins around and around.

It’s a weird and wonderful montage — many of the events occurring to the background music of an old radio (which had a fork as its aerial) that my “nanny” listened to while she did the ironing. Oh — and there is that time that same nanny and my dad sat together on the couch toasting glasses of sherry when Mandela walked out of jail. In between these memories are snippets of Riaan Crywagen (news reader extraordinaire) on the 8 o’clock news and my mom turning it off so my brother and I couldn’t see the turmoil.

The CD is an hour and 20 minutes of history with a melody. It captures our heritage with remarkable clarity and highlights the importance — no necessity — of music as a tool for struggle and freedom.

'Amandla!' is also an amazing showcase of diverse songs from a spectrum of South African recording artists, including giants Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Abdullah Ibrahim as well as the like of contemporary starts such as Vusi Mahlasela, Sibongile Khumalo, Themba Mkhize, Tananas and Joe Nina.

One of the highlights of the compilation is that it includes previously unheard and unreleased recordings of classic songs. These include 'Mannenberg' by Abdullah Ibrahim, 'The Untold Story' by Sibongile Khumalo and Themba Mkhize as well as Vusi Mahlasela’s 'When you Come Back'.

Another interesting inclusion is that of an array of outstanding choral recordings, including the Robben Island Prison Singers, the Pretoria Central Prison Choir and the Diepkloof Community Choir.

My favourite track on the album is definitely 'Meadowlands' (Nancy Jacobs and Sisters) which sounds like it could be emanating from an old transistor radio on a lazy afternoon.

The soundtrack material on 'Amandla!' was specifically compiled by the film's director Lee Hirsh (who took nine years to complete the project) and its producer Sherry Simpson along with South African-born US music superstar, Dave Matthews (whose ATO record label recently released the album in North America)

This CD is one that will enrich any collection. Buy it.