{"id":107402,"date":"2018-01-03T10:47:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T08:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/biopic-misrepresents-miles-davis-in-the-life-of-a-south-african-freedom-fighter-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2018-01-03T10:47:38","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T08:47:38","slug":"biopic-misrepresents-miles-davis-in-the-life-of-a-south-african-freedom-fighter-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/biopic-misrepresents-miles-davis-in-the-life-of-a-south-african-freedom-fighter-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"Biopic misrepresents Miles Davis in the life of a South African freedom fighter | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biopic misrepresents Miles Davis in the life of a South African freedom fighter<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The cover of 'Seven Steps to heaven'.<\/span> From: Wolf's Kompaktkiste<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South Africans had specific attitudes to American jazz during the liberation struggle against apartheid. The late trumpeter Johnny Mekoa told me in an interview for my book, \u201cSoweto Blues: jazz politics and popular music in South Africa\u201d:<\/p>\n

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People were listening to this music at home because we felt this was our music and these are our black heroes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For South Africans aspiring to freedom, jazz was protest music. In struggle, jazz offered shared, collective messages of black intellectual attainment \u2013 and beauty. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s therefore not surprising that jazz plays a starring role in Mandla Dube\u2019s 2017 biopic \u201cKalushi\u201d \u2013 the story of South African freedom fighter Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. Today, few of those born later know Mahlangu\u2019s story. But in telling it, the film takes too little care over factual accuracy, and narrows and distorts what jazz meant to those fighting on the front lines for liberation.<\/p>\n

In the opening minutes of biopic we see the young Kalushi parting with his savings for a copy of the Miles Davis LP Seven Steps to Heaven in a general store in the Pretoria township of Mamelodi.<\/p>\n

The scene was inspired by Kalushi\u2019s well known fondness for Davis. But according to score composer Rashid Lanie, <\/p>\n

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When I first saw the first scenes of Solly carrying Miles Davis\u2019s \u2018Kind of Blue\u2019 album\u2026 I said: \u2018I don\u2019t think we should use that visual \u2013 let\u2019s change it.\u2019 When Solly walks to the gallows, it is 52 steps to the gallows. Five plus two is seven. Did you know Miles Davis also has an album called \u2018Seven Steps to Heaven?\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The cover of \u2018Kind of Blue\u2019.<\/span> Miles Davis website<\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s why, in the film, Kalushi is seen carrying the \u2018Seven Steps to Heaven\u2019 LP.<\/p>\n

Military training<\/h2>\n

That\u2019s not the last time Davis appears. The album is used by Kalushi\u2019s struggle contact (a thuggish character first shown stabbing someone in a back alley) to pressure him into political activity. It survives jumping the border, and military training in a camp of the African National Congress (ANC) army in exile, Umkhonto we Sizwe. Kalushi\u2019s final words as he heads for the gallows have become immortal: <\/p>\n

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Tell my people that I love them and that they must continue the struggle.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the film, they are reduced to a coda after Kalushi muses: <\/p>\n

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You know, Miles Davis once said: \u2018If somebody told me I only had one hour to live, I\u2019d spend it choking a white man. I\u2019d do it nice and slow\u2026\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Which is all very well, except that if those words of Davis\u2019s were spoken at all, they were uttered six or seven years after Kalushi\u2019s judicial murder at the gallows by the South African state. <\/p>\n