About Juluka
Hometown
South Africa
Formed
1969
Genre
Worldwide
Fronted by Sipho Mchunu and Johnny Clegg, Juluka pushed the envelope of South African music by merging local genres like maskandi and mbaqanga with Western genres such as folk and rock. The group formed in 1969 when Mchunu (a Zulu gardener) and Clegg (a white, UK-born academic) met in the streets of Johannesburg, where they struggled to get their music played on the radio because their multiracial band contravened apartheid laws. As a result, Juluka’s classic 1979 debut, Universal Men, received a lukewarm reception even though it’s now considered their definitive work; the album explores the story of a migrant worker from KwaZulu-Natal as he navigates The City of Gold, where he is only good for the labor he provides the apartheid system. This pro-working class, anti-apartheid message formed the basis of the rest of Juluka’s discography: Their breakout hit, “Impi,” from 1981’s African Litany, was inspired by the victory of the Zulu nation against the colonial British army at the 1879 Battle of Isandlwana. Juluka disbanded in 1985 when Mchunu moved back to KwaZulu-Natal to care for his family, while Clegg continued to have a successful career until his passing in 2019.
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