The need and desire for increased economic opportunity drove
many Africans from across the vast continent to migrate to South
Africa in the 19th century. As a result of this influx, South
African society was informed by an array of foreign cultural
influences, which is, in turn, reflected in the indigenous music
that has emerged from the great nation. Many songs, including
those written by the world-renowned musician Hugh Masekela,
explore this struggle – a situation where migrants were
separated from their families and endured incredible hardships
in the pursuit of providing for their families. Political
struggles and related inequalities of the day also informed this
music, just as it informed the songs that African Americans sang
in our own country as they sought political and social freedoms.
Johannesburg’s Sibojama Theatre’s production of Songs of
Migration, which played Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center for
several performances in mid-October, explores these musical
influences with a musical tribute and,