17/03/2012 12:20
Johnny Clegg, an award-winning South African dancer, anthropologist, singer, songwriter, academic and activist. Picture courtesy of Andreas Keller.
By Jeffry Feeger @ PNG Contemporary Arts
I went to the Johnny Clegg and Savuka concert last Thursday night in Sydney and it was brilliant, they put on a dynamic performance to a small closely packed and appreciative audience. Amazing voice and energy, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.
The audience was allocated seats but they hardly sat on them, everyone was up dancing, bobbing and swaying, the way a concert should be!
Johnny's performance of his most popular song Scatterings of Africa was kind of ordinary but it was the soul he put into his other lesser known songs that gave me shivers. Big shout out to Arka B and Jeffrey Noro for company.
I think at the end of it all, I was envious that South Africa was so blessed with such talent, musicians that saw beyond the colour of the skin and sort to bring about social and political change through their music. Rising to world stardom through the oppression of Apartheid!
Art and music help define a people and an era. We need talented artists to stand up and guide and navigate us through the rapid changes in our society to find clear cultural paths that lead us through oppression. Rise up musicians and artists of Papua New Guinea (PNG), West Papua, Melanesia, Pacific and the world, RISE UP !
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Jeffry Feeger is a PNG contemporary visual artist and is based in the PNG capital Port Moresby, he recently visited Sydney as part of the Maketi Ples art exhibition.
