/ 5 November 2004

The road we travelled

CD OF THE WEEK: Various: The Winds of Change

A journey through the key music and moments that gave birth to a free, democratic South Africa.” This sentence and a photograph of a young Nelson Mandela grace the cover of The Winds of Change (African Cream), a double CD released, no doubt, to coincide with our celebration of 10 years of democracy.

CD one kicks off, unavoidably, with Tumelo Moloi’s stirring a cappella rendition of Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, which jumps right into an excerpt of Harold Macmillan’s famous Winds of Change speech, followed by Dorothy Masuka’s Zono Zam (“It’s so hard in this world/ Oh God help us to be free”). A politically charged opening, for sure.

The rest of the CD proceeds in this same manner, freely mixing fact and music: Mandela’s Rivonia Trial speech meets the Jazz Ministers’ Zandile; Pops Mohamed stands next to Jeremy Taylor; JB Vorster is followed by a freedom song. There’s PW Botha, Eugene Terre’Blanche and the Soul Brothers, and Johnny Clegg sings Asimbonanga. The result is an aural tribute to our history, particularly the dark apartheid years.

Then, the second album tackles the end of apartheid and the return of democracy, starting with Stimela’s Whispers in the Deep and moving on to FW de Klerk’s African National Congress unbanning speech, Hugh Masekela, Mandela’s inauguration speech, Prophets of da City’s Neva Again, Thabo Mbeki’s I Am an African speech, Busi Mhlongo, Sibongile Khumalo and much more, finally returning to Nkosi — this time rendered by the African Cream Freedom Choir.

The sleeve notes that provide a paragraph or three on each song or speech included on the two CDs — informative, but sadly only a few of the descriptions provide dates, which is surely a crucial aspect of a project such as this.

The Winds of Change is by no means a representative archive. It could easily have been a set of 20 CDs. Still, it is a worthwhile look at the road to freedom that South Africa has travelled.