Last night, we went to see Johnny Clegg's "Final Journey" as he says good bye to his fans. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and set up this tour shortly after finishing his treatments earlier this year. We bought tickets right away. While we seldom go to concerts, even avoid restaurants where bands are playing, going to see Johnny Clegg, for us, is a must. Peter was hooked after hearing Johnny Clegg and Juluka on the radio while he was going to Villanova in the early 80's. He and some frat brothers caught a show when the band played Phillie. That was that. But of course the guy who dreamed of going to Africa from when he was seven, would love the South African crossover band, steeped in African sound and an anti-apartheid message. He would come to find out over the years, this white Zulu, didn't just appropriate the music, but spoke not only fluent Zulu, but deep Zulu, understanding the cultural nuances and traditions as if they were his own.
Of course, that first song that grabbed Peter was "Scatterlings of Africa" and it was particularly poignant seeing it for the 6th and probably the last time, this evening. According to the man himself, while he may have written better songs, written songs that made more money, this was his favorite song.
After Clegg said that, I wondered which one was mine. With so many great songs, how could I pick one?
In "The Crossing" I think of my brother who was murdered 22 years ago. The verse about a
"punch drunk man in a downtown bar
takes a beating without making a sound,
through swollen eyes he sways and smiles
because no one can put him down.
Inside of him a boy looks up at his father
for a sign or an approving eye,
Oh it's funny how those once so close to us and now gone
can still affect our lives."
My husband, may have a different song as his favorite, I know that "Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World " is the one I think of as his song to our children. Early on in our marriage, we were having a difficult time, we went to see a marriage counselor where we found a shocking revelation. While I had always wanted children, he admitted in our sessions that he did not. At the time, I thought he didn't want them as a rejection of me, but I came to find out that he didn't want to bring innocent children into the world we were living in. I helped him to see the world not as cruel and crazy as he thought. And I helped show him its beauty. I told him I wanted to do what I could to make the world worthy of our children. That was a huge turning point in our individual lives but also in the life we were sharing.
And now we have these kids. We even brought them with us to the Kalahari Music Festival, where Johnny Clegg was headlining when we were living in Botswana. On our safaris, treks throughout Southern Africa, they heard Clegg with Juluka, Savuka and on his own - one of the handful of CD's we listened to over and again. Regardless, who would have known that "Asimbonanga" Clegg's tribute to Mandela would be our activist daughter's favorite and that our son, taking expeditionary studies, would/could be '...sitting on top of Kilimanjaro..." where he "can see a new tomorrow."
It's hard for me to choose just one of the songs that Clegg played last night. They meant so much to me as I made my way with this White American with an African Soul. And how my life would be so different if I had not met him, married him.
Maybe I would have embraced some other culture if I had married someone else. After all, I felt a kinship to the women I met when I went to Pakistan and Guatemala for work. Maybe I would have pursued my dream of being a newspaper journalist and become a global correspondent. I could have settled in Asia. But that didn't happen. I met Peter and that was that.
His love for Africa wasn't infectious. He didn't immerse me or the children in it but instead exposed us to her charms, like playing Johnny Clegg for us on our game drives and road trips on our way to the heart of the desert, to sleep under the stars, to see a forest of giraffe, be charged by elephant and awoken to the roar of a lion in camp.
And while we didn't always have a choice, we went willingly. Not only do our children embrace the adventures Peter has given them, I do too. When we were on our honeymoon through Europe, we went on a ghost walk in England. During the walk, there was a story of a mint where the janitor saw images of soldiers, hurt, dejected, weary. The troop walked toward him as he fixed something in the basement. The soldiers and their horses were quite visible from their shins up. After some research, it was determined this was a Roman legion who had lost and were pushed up to York. Anthropologists excavated the basement of the mint and found concrete evidence. That night, I had a dream so vivid, I awoke in fright. Peter leaned toward me to ask what was wrong, but I pushed him away. In my dream, I was a woman who had come up to one of the soldiers to offer a ladle of water. As the man took the ladle from my hand, I saw his face. He was Peter. Eventually, I did fall back asleep. It wouldn't be until the light of day that Peter would tell me that he had the very same dream. Many experiences have shown me that Peter and I were not only "meant-to-be" but have been for many lives.
After how easily I adapted to living with the San, we're convinced we were Bushmen at some stage of our beings. We have been together since the beginning of time.
Maybe that's why Johnny Clegg so easily stirs my soul. He has been a part of our lives from the beginning. And seeing Clegg up on stage, acknowledging that this might be his last tour, watching him with his son, Jesse, and seeing the fruits of his other son's labors in the videos accompanying the performance, really made last night's show most personal.
But back to answering my own question - "Dela" is my favorite song from last night's set...and quite frankly, the song my African heart sings and has sung for what seems like eternity.
"One day I looked up and there you were.
like a simple question looking for an answer.
Now I am the whale listening to some inner call,
swimming blindly to throw myself upon your shore.
...What if I don't find you when I have landed?
Will you leave me here to die on your shore stranded?
I've been waiting for you all my life, hoping for a miracle.
I've been waiting day and night, day and night."
http://www.johnnyclegg.com/tour.html
No comments:
Post a Comment