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Anti-apartheid and the Politicisation of Pop Music: Controversies Around the Mandela Concert in 1988

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Apartheid and Anti-Apartheid in Western Europe

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies ((CIPCSS))

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the role of national anti-apartheid movements in Northwestern European countries for the politicisation of pop music during the 1980s. It highlights the tensions within these movements arising from the uneasy relationship of pop and politics and their attempts to overcome it in order to reach broad masses. The most important attempt to do so was the Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday concert in London’s Wembley Stadium, which was a big success, but triggered conflicts around the question on to how to reach the political goal of abandoning apartheid. The anti-apartheid movement was divided over criticism of its professionalisation, depoliticisation and involvement with the music business. Its relationship to pop culture draws a contrast between the idealised image of a unified global movement and its amorphous and multipolar reality. As the Wembley concert combined political awareness and popular culture, it is analysed as a showcase of how Western European societies tackled the media’s increasing global coherence.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf. Elihu Katz and Daniel Dayan, Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1992); Friedrich Lenger and Ansgar Nünning, eds., Medienereignisse der Moderne (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2008).

  2. 2.

    Quote: Peter Elman, “Tony Hollingsworth Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute”, accessed August 8, 2018, http://tonyhollingsworth.com/?q=content/nelson-mandela-70th-birthday-tribute

  3. 3.

    Robin Denselow, When The Music’s Over: The Story of Political Pop (London: Faber, 1990), 274; David Toulson, “Culture is a Weapon: Popular Music, Protest and Opposition to Apartheid in Britain” (PhD diss., University of Warwick, 2016), 258 f., 266 f.

  4. 4.

    Stern, June 15, 1988, 25; unspecified press clipping in Bodleian Library, Oxford (BLO), MSS AAM 1930.

  5. 5.

    Cf. the brief overview at Roger Fieldhouse, Anti-Apartheid. A History of the Movement in Britain (London: Merlin, 2005), 120–123.

  6. 6.

    Gallup Poll Nelson Mandela, 29 June – 5 July 1988, BLO, MSS AAM 1932.

  7. 7.

    Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann and Renate Köcher, eds., Allensbacher Jahrbuch der Demoskopie 1984–1992 (München et al.: Saur, 1993), 1003ff. However, this did not mean that the West German citizens had joined the demands of the anti-apartheid movement. Only a quarter were in favour of a ban on imports of South African goods, and more than half said that this would mainly be to the detriment of black workers.

  8. 8.

    Hans Magnus Enzensberger, “Baukasten zu einer Medien-Theorie,” Kursbuch 20 (1970): 173.

  9. 9.

    Dieter Baacke, Beat – die sprachlose Opposition (München: Juventa, 1968).

  10. 10.

    Sigrid Baringhorst, Politik als Kampagne. Zur medialen Erzeugung von Solidarität (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1998), 50.

  11. 11.

    Benjamin Möckel, “‘Free Nelson Mandela’: Popmusik und zivilgesellschaftlicher Protest in der britischen Anti-Apartheid-Bewegung,” Lied und populäre Kultur 60/61 (2015/16): 187–205.

  12. 12.

    This and the following quotation: The British Contribution to the Cultural Isolation of South Africa and Mobilisation of Cultural Forces in Support of the South African Freedom Struggle, February 1984, BLO, MSS AAM 1463.

  13. 13.

    Quoted from Möckel, “‘Free Nelson Mandela’,” 197.

  14. 14.

    AAM (Mike Terry) to Steve Waterhouse, 28.3.1988, BLO, MSS AAM 1929.

  15. 15.

    Cf. Benjamin Möckel, “Empathie als Fernsehereignis: Bilder des Hungers und das Live-Aid-Festival 1985,” Nebulosa. Figuren des Sozialen 8 (2015): 83–93; Toulson, Culture, 234ff.

  16. 16.

    Robert Keating, “Anatomy of a Cause Concert,” Spin (September 1988): 31 and 72.

  17. 17.

    John Leland, “Talkin‘ ’Bouta Revolution. Rock’s Summer of Conscience,” Spin (September 1988): 27.

  18. 18.

    Quoted after the German translation of the text in Informationsdienst südliches Afrika 7 (1988): 5.

  19. 19.

    Toulson, Culture, 226. Cf. Denselow, When the Music’s Over, 227.

  20. 20.

    Elman, “Mandela.”

  21. 21.

    Peter Elman, “Tony Hollingsworth. Summary Biography,” accessed August 8, 2018, http://tonyhollingsworth.com/?q=content/tony-hollingsworths-biography

  22. 22.

    Hollingsworth quoted after ibid.

  23. 23.

    Roger Harris and Margaret Ling, Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Commemorative Merchandise, 2.2.1988, BLO, MSS AAM 1929. Cf. the contribution of Benjamin Möckel in this volume and on the wider context Benjamin Möckel, “The Material Culture of Human Rights. Consumer Products, Boycotts and the Transformation of Human Rights Activism in the 1970s and 1980s,” History Culture Modernity 6, no. X (2018): 76–104.

  24. 24.

    Anti-Apartheid Movement, Annual Report October 1987 – September 1988, 13, online: https://www.aamarchives.org/archive/reports.html?start=24

  25. 25.

    [AAM], Mandela Merchandise – some thoughts and guidelines, [early 1988], BLO, MSS AAM 1929.

  26. 26.

    Stuart Hall, The AAM and the Race-ing of Britain (London: Anti-Apartheid Archives Committee, 1999), accessed July 20, 2018, http://sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/library-resources/officialdocs/anti-apartheid-movement/aam-britain.htm

  27. 27.

    Denselow, When the Music’s Over, 122ff., 203ff.; Toulson, Culture, 152ff., 213ff.

  28. 28.

    This and the following in Chandra Sekar/Jerry Dammers to Trevor Huddleston, 13.5.1988, BLO, MSS AAM 1929.

  29. 29.

    Jerry Dammers to Tony Hollingsworth, 9.5.1988, MSS AAM 1929.

  30. 30.

    Steve Waterhouse to Huddlestone, o.D., BLO, MSS AAM 1929.

  31. 31.

    Rebecca Kemp to AAM, 12.6.1988, BLO, MSS AAM 1929.

  32. 32.

    Cf. Mark Perryman, “The Mandela Moment,” Marxism Today (September 1988): 28–30.

  33. 33.

    Cf. Rob Nixon, Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood. South African Culture and the World Beyond (New York: Routledge, 1994), 164 f.

  34. 34.

    Ian Flooks to Tony Hollingsworth, 23.3.1988, BLO, MSS AAM 1929.

  35. 35.

    Cf. Detlef Siegfried, “Aporien des Kulturboykotts. Anti-Apartheid-Bewegung, ANC und der Konflikt um Paul Simons Album ‘Graceland’,” Zeithistorische Forschungen/Studies in Contemporary History 13, no. 2 (2016): 254–279. English version: https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/file/4173/download?token=3lCKxDjz.

  36. 36.

    This and the following quote after Mary Keating, “Prisoner of Rock,” Spin (September 1988): 30.

  37. 37.

    Vrij Nederland, April 18, 1987; Informationsdienst südliches Afrika 7 (1988), 17 f.

  38. 38.

    AAM, Paul Simon and the Anti-Apartheid Cultural Boycott. What is the Problem?, o.D., BLO, MSS AAM 1473.

  39. 39.

    Cit. after Die Zeit, July 10, 1987; Der Spiegel 36, September 3, 1990, 265.

  40. 40.

    Der Spiegel 48, 1985, 261.

  41. 41.

    Berlingske Tidende, April 15, 1990.

  42. 42.

    FAZ, April 17, 1990.

  43. 43.

    Keating, “Anatomy,” 72.

  44. 44.

    Notes from Jerry Dammers, o.D., BLO, MSS AAM 1929.

  45. 45.

    FAZ, June 13, 1988, 28.

  46. 46.

    FAZ, July 18, 1988, 3.

  47. 47.

    John Street, “Red Wedge. Another Strange Story of Pop’s Politics,” Critical Quarterly 3, no. 3 (1988): 79–91; Jeremy Tranmer, “Political Commitment of a New Type? Red Wedge and the Labour Party in the 1980s,” Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique 22, no. 3 (2017): 1–17; Daniel Rachel, Walls Come Tumbling Down, The Music and Politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge (London: Picador, 2017).

  48. 48.

    Sources in International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam (IISH), ARCH03105/341.

  49. 49.

    Sources in IISH, ARCH03259/51.

  50. 50.

    Cit. after Tor Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa Volume II. Solidarity and Assistance 1970–1994 (Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2002), 763.

  51. 51.

    See also John Hansen, “Rock mod apartheid. Danske musikere stiller op,” in Aktivister mod Apartheid - dansk Solidaritet med Sydafrika, eds. Morten Nielsen et al. (Copenhagen: Sydafrika Kontakt, 2004), 93–95.

  52. 52.

    Paper delivered by the anti-apartheid-movement of the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin on occasion of the Symposium on “Culture Against Apartheid” by the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, Athens, 2–4 September 1988, IISH, COLL0266/426.

  53. 53.

    Anti-Apartheid-Nachrichten 4, no. 0 and 5 (1986); Informationsdienst südliches Afrika 7 (1988): 17 f.

  54. 54.

    Anti-Apartheid-Bewegung (Ingeborg Wick) to Udo Lindenberg, 7.11.1986, Archiv für alternatives Schrifttum, Duisburg (AfaS), AAB 244, Teil 2.

  55. 55.

    Pressemitteilung, 26.11.1986, AfaS, AAB, 244, Teil 2.

  56. 56.

    Jürgen Bacia and Dorothée Leidig, ‘Kauft keine Früchte aus Südafrika’. Geschichte der Anti-Apartheid-Bewegung (Frankfurt am Main: Brandes Apsel, 2008), 294.

  57. 57.

    Fieldhouse, Anti-Apartheid, 303.

  58. 58.

    Ingeborg Wick, “Bilanz und Perspektiven. Gedanken zur Anti-Apartheid-Bewegung,” Informationsdienst südliches Afrika 3 (1991): 37.

  59. 59.

    Holger Stürenburg, Forever Young. Die Klänge der kühlen Dekade (München: Stürenburg, 2001), 91 f.

  60. 60.

    Alexa Geisthövel, “Böse reden, fröhlich leiden: Ästhetische Strategien der punkaffinen Intelligenz um 1980,” in Das schöne Selbst. Zur Genealogie des modernen Subjekts zwischen Ethik und Ästhetik, ed. Jens Elberfeld (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2009), 367–399; Nadja Geer, “‘If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.’ Pop als distinktiver intellektueller Selbstentwurf,” in Popgeschichte, vol. 2: Zeithistorische Fallstudien 1958–1988, eds. Bodo Mrozek, Alexa Geisthövel and Jürgen Danyel (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2014), 337–357.

  61. 61.

    taz, May 24, 1986.

  62. 62.

    Musik Express/Sounds, August 1988, 63.

  63. 63.

    taz, June 13, 1988.

  64. 64.

    Bravo, June 23, 1986, 8–9.

  65. 65.

    taz, July 15, 1988; Flugblatt Bund für Geistesfreiheit, Konzert für Nelson Mandela in Nürnberg, AfaS, AAB 144.

  66. 66.

    Cf. Mara Müller, ‘Freiheit für Nelson Mandela’. Die Solidaritätskampagne in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (München: Allitera, 2014), 102.

  67. 67.

    FAZ, June 13, 1988.

  68. 68.

    Anti-Apartheid-Nachrichten, July 1988, 1.

  69. 69.

    Paper delivered by the anti-apartheid-movement of the Federal Republic of Germany and West-Berlin on occasion of the Symposium on “Culture Against Apartheid” by the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, Athens, 2–4 September 1988, IISH, COLL0266/426.

  70. 70.

    AAB (Wick) to Nelson Mandela International Reception Committee, 29.3.1990, AfaS, AAB, 140, Teil 2; International Reception Committee FRG and West Berlin, Delegation to London 15th/16th of April 1990, AfaS, AAB, 140, Teil 2.

  71. 71.

    In Anti-Apartheid-Nachrichten, July 1988, 1.

  72. 72.

    Cf. Müller, “‘Freiheit für Nelson Mandela’,” 112.

  73. 73.

    Anti-Apartheid-Koordination, Presseerklärung, 4.4.1990, University of Western Cape (UWC), Mayibuye Archive, MCH 220-1.

  74. 74.

    Flyer in UWC, Mayibuye Archive, MCH 203.

  75. 75.

    FAZ, June 13, 1990; taz, June 30, 1990; Paroli 2 (1990), 10–11. Cf. Bacia/Leidig, “Kauft keine Früchte,” 242.

  76. 76.

    Håkan Thörn, Anti-Apartheid and the Emergence of a Global Civil Society (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 69.

  77. 77.

    Ibid, 193, 196.

  78. 78.

    Gerhard Schulze, Die Erlebnisgesellschaft. Kultursoziologie der Gegenwart (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 1992).

  79. 79.

    Toulson, Culture, 267.

  80. 80.

    Simon Stevens, “The External Struggle against Apartheid: New Perspectives,” Humanity 7, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 300.

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  1. University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Detlef Siegfried

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    Sebastian Justke

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    Detlef Siegfried

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Siegfried, D. (2021). Anti-apartheid and the Politicisation of Pop Music: Controversies Around the Mandela Concert in 1988. In: Andresen, K., Justke, S., Siegfried, D. (eds) Apartheid and Anti-Apartheid in Western Europe. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53284-0_7

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