Joe Boyd: belief

Transcript context

…World music — is Zulu music, as Paul Simon borrowed from in the 1980s — is that, in fact, reactionary in the South African context? I think a lot of people in South Africa considered . . . There are lots of different opinions about all kinds of music, but certainly, the youth in the ANC, who were supporting Nelson Mandela, I think, would probably have viewed the music that Paul Simon, the musicians that Paul Simon collaborated with, and the style in which Graceland was performed as both old fashioned and tribal. Both were, from their point of view, contrary to what they liked and what represented their struggle. A lot of the controversy about Graceland was, “Oh, did Paul Simon break the boycott?” In fact, in South Africa, the controversy about it was much different. People in the Northern Hemisphere felt that by buying Ladysmith Black Mambazo records and Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens records that they were somehow supporting Nelson Mandela. Whereas in South Africa, Nelson Mandela supporters felt that music represented the Zulus who were the enemy of the ANC, or at least the official Zulu hierarchy was the enemy of the ANC. The Zulus have long had more capitalist traditions? Or what exactly were the differences then?…

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