{"id":109615,"date":"2018-02-11T10:47:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T08:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/how-masekelas-journeys-in-exile-shaped-his-music-and-politics-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2018-02-11T10:47:37","modified_gmt":"2018-02-11T08:47:37","slug":"how-masekelas-journeys-in-exile-shaped-his-music-and-politics-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/how-masekelas-journeys-in-exile-shaped-his-music-and-politics-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"How Masekela’s journeys in exile shaped his music and politics | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Masekela’s journeys in exile shaped his music and politics<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Hugh Masekela's 30 years of exile began shortly after the Sharpeville Massacre.<\/span> Lee Celano\/Reuters<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The world continues to pay tribute to the legendary Hugh Ramapolo Masekela who died on 23 January 2018. His journeys have reminded us that the itineraries of South African exiles \u2014 writers, journalists, performers, photographers, and political activists \u2014 have much to offer transnational histories of anti-apartheid resistance.<\/p>\n

Masekela knew some formative moments during his own long exile. Radical black internationalism, pan-Africanism and anti-apartheid resistance were all woven into the texture of his sound. Masekela traversed these universes without ever relinquishing his claims to musical autonomy and creative agency as a black artist who made a living through his art.<\/p>\n

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Read more: Remembering Hugh Masekela: the horn player with a shrewd ear for music of the day <\/strong> <\/em> <\/p>\n

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Masekela\u2019s 30 years of exile began shortly after the Sharpeville Massacre in March 1960. That is when the apartheid regime\u2019s police opened fire on a group of black protesters in the township of Sharpeville, south of Johannesburg, killing 69 people.<\/p>\n

The young Masekela was already a rising star in the Sophiatown jazz scene when he left his motherland. Once in New York, Masekela dreamed of blending into the golden era of black jazz as a virtuoso bebop trumpeter.<\/p>\n

Game-changer<\/h2>\n

Although Masekela\u2019s entry into the American music industry was relatively smooth thanks to the mediation of his future wife, the already exiled singer Miriam Makeba, his career veered away from bebop. <\/p>\n

After his separation from Makeba, Masekela moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 1966 in the slipstream of the relative success of his third album \u201cThe Americanization of Ooga Booga\u201d (1966). <\/p>\n

This decision was a game-changer. Masekela was invited to participate in the prestigious Monterey International Pop Festival in California in 1967. He then released his first hit and chart-blazer \u201cGrazing in the Grass\u201d (1968).<\/p>\n