VI. Expanding Influence

“One day you might have a special role to play for your people…One day you might be asked to speak for your people” – Harry Belafonte (Makeba 47)

As a result of their ability to compel interest to South Africa’s cause, Makeba and Masekela became antiapartheid leaders. The public status that they gained through their musical careers in exile created opportunities to contribute politically beyond just through their own songs. Their dual commitment parallels Brutus’ inability “to make a total commitment to poetry” (McLuckie 28):

This is not possible, in the sense that I could wholly shut out, say, my political activity, my organizing work, my sport, the kind of chores I do from day to day with this or that committee, and so on.

In exile, Brutus continued his fight for non-racial athletics. His principal role in the Sports African Sports Association (later the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee) was instrumental in getting South Africa banned from the Olympics starting from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics up until the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. His political activity, ranging from testifying before the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid to serving as an African National Congress delegate, earned him placement on South African intelligence files as “one of the 20 most dangerous South African political figures overseas” (McLuckie 28) – evidencing his claim in “I am the tree” that “I am the voice / crying in the night / that cries endlessly” (Brutus, “Simple Lust” 106).

In parallel, Masekela and Makeba responded to Masekela’s own question posed in “Stimela” – “Where were you men when the children were facing guns and throwing stones?” Because of the public nature of music, significantly more than that of poetry, the two musicians could directly use their musical fame to become political forces for their nation and those that had been persecuted.
Makeba became known as ‘Mama Africa’ for her celebration of African culture and active support of independent African nations, singing at such events as the Festival of African Culture and the birth of the Organisation of African Unity, a meeting of independent African countries. She also indeed became the spokesperson for South Africa, as Belafonte predicted. She spoke several times at the United Nations before the Special Committee on Declonisation and the Special Committee Against Apartheid. She gained the ears of individuals ranging from international leaders to American celebrities. Furthermore, Makeba and Masekela were both influential in the creation of the South African Students Abroad, an organization to help South African students in exile.
The musical tours they were part of became political themselves. Makeba and Masekela both joined Paul Simon’s Graceland Tour. The tour became controversial because Simon had recorded in South Africa, a violation to the cultural boycott that the United Nations had placed on South Africa. However, the political aims of the two musicians are displayed through their commitment to the tour. Masekela explains:

This show not only gave them awareness, but inspired them enough to begin questioning their country’s association with the South Africa regime and demanding that all ties with that country be terminated (Masekela 345)

The two artists had become leaders, choosing for themselves the best opportunities to “expose the South African situation to more people around the world” (Makeba 199).