SARAFINA!
«
The Music of Liberation
Sarafina!, a musical celebra
tion of a group of South African
students’ resistance to and rebel
lion against apartheid, will open at
Memorial Hall on Tuesday, Janu
ary 22 at 8:00p.m. Sarafina! comes
to UNC directly from Broadway
with a cast of 30 actors ages 15 to
25 who sing and dance. Many of
them appeared in the world pre
miere of Sarafina! at the Market
Theatre in Johannesburg in early
mi.
Conceived, written and directed
by Mbongeni Ngema (pronounced
bawn ee en-Gay-mah), the noted
South African author and musi
cian, the idea to write Sarafina!
came in 1984 when Winnie Man-
Award. During the run in New
York, he met with Hugh Masekela,
the South African jazz musician,
who happened to be performing
there at the time. The two decided
to collaborate on the music of
Sarafina!
The results of their efforts are
almost two dozen songs in the
Mbaqanga tradition, which com
bines a number of different musi
cal styles, including jazz, rock,
rhythm and blues and gospel. The
cast is made up of youngsters
drawn from all over South Africa.
None of the original actors was
professional performers when they
auditioned — they went through
eight months of extensive training
People, Arts
dela, wife of then jailed African
National Congress leader Nelson
Mandela, spoke with Mbongeni
about doing a show which would
celebrate the children of South
Africa’s townships.
Ngema, who had achieved in
ternational fame as one of the co
creators and stars of the play Woza
Albert, began to develop the idea
and saw it as a terrific opportunity
to also celebrate the music of the
townships— a driving dance music
called Mbaqanga in Zulu. While
working on Sarafina!, Ngemafirst
finished the play Asinamali which
was nominated for a 1987 Tony
to prepare for their stage debut.
The story of Sarafina! follows
the activities of a class of the Morris
Isaacson High School in Soweto,
siteofthe now famous 1976upris-
ings which resulted in the deaths
of hundreds of children. For an
end-of-the-school-year concert,
the students decided to put on a
play about the day when Nelson
Mandela would be released from
prison after more than 20 years
and the Day of Liberation that is
sure to follow.
Tickets are $25 for the public,
$ 13 for students, and are available
from the Union Box Office.
Express Yourself...
In Black Ink
Black Ink invites all students to
showcase their talents in a special literary
edition of Black Ink. We will
accept poems, fiction, graphic art and other
artistic forms.
Think Black Ink!
Entries will be accepted until:
Monday, February 4, 1991
Album Review:
Pebbles' Always
By Corey Brown
Staff
Ratings: B-/ C+
L.A. Reid, Babyface, After 7,
Johnny Gill, Karyn White, Salt-n-
Pepa, and Cherrelle: what do they
all have in common? They all
worked on Pebbles' second album
entitled Always. With all of this
talent pooled into one it would be
quite hard for her to have an aver
age album. The problem is despite
all of these artists only a few songs
have their own identity.
The strength of this album lies
in its ballads. Three in particular
come to mind; the newest release,
“Love Makes Things Happen,”
which is a duet with Babyface;
“Always,” a duet with Cherrelle
(which I believe a dedication to
her husband L.A. Reid); and my
personal favorite, “Why Do I
Believe.” After hearing these songs
it’ll have you thinking about past
and presentrelationships and what
you’d give to be with that person.
The diasappointments I had
with Always were with the quality
of uptempo songs. With every artist
L.A. and Babyface produces, you
can count on meaningful lyrics,
but that takes emphasis from beat
and rhythms to make you groove.
I mean, “Giving You The Benefit”
was a hit in the clubs, but it will
probably be the last of her dance
tunes to get serious rotation. And
although Salt-n-Pepa did a good
job to help pump up the song
“Backyard,” they couldn’t over
come the “studio manufactured”
beat. That is a major “beef’ with
L.A. and ‘Face - their inability to
produce a “live” sound in their
dance songs.
Overall, depending on which
way you look at it Always isAsn’t
for you. If you’re into the slow-
chillwitchahoneyjams or if you just
want to gaze at the beauty on the
cover (Pebbles is fine), this album
is definitely near the top of the
priorities list. But, if you antici
pate an album to keep you dancing
all night, you might want to look
for a friend and get a dub of it. (I
actually got it from my cousin.
Thanks Shonda!)