Reggae in London

Irene Madonko talks to African reggae superstar Lucky Dube.

It’s hard to swallow, but it’s true: there are not that many African reggae artists in the UK. This is despite the fact that a lot of reggae music is about Africa. We spoke to London-based West African reggae musicians Afrikan Simba and Bush Doctor who gave insight into why it’s hard to break into reggae music in the UK. But despite the challenges both men believe that there is still hope for Africans to launch here.

This optimism is shared by South African Lucky Dube, one of the most established reggae musicians to emerge from Africa. The award-winning musician agrees that although there are serious challenges for Africans wanting to get into reggae, it is possible to succeed.

Lucky began his career by singing mbaqanga music in South Africa, and together with the Super Soul band, recorded an album ‘Kudala Ngikuncenga’ as early as 1982. He recorded a few other mbaqanga albums before moving into reggae. His early reggae albums include ‘Think about the Children’. Then he began doling out the hits: his albums ‘Slave’, ‘Prisoner’ and ‘Together As One’ saw him catapult to recognition firstly regionally and then globally. Today, with over 20 albums, several international tours and a growing fan base, Lucky is proof that African reggae superstars do exist. Irene Madonko spoke to him on his recent European tour. Here’s what he feels about the scene:

Irene Madonko : What’s the main message behind reggae music?

Lucky dube : Reggae is not just one message. It is a lot of messages to different people in different situations – reggae is relevant to their situation. For me in South Africa during apartheid it was Peter Tosh. He said ‘Africa is the richest place, but the poorest race.’ Sadly, that is still true.

IM : So you switched over from mbaqanga music to reggae because the latter had a message?




LD : Yes, that is the reason. Also, reggae is found all over the world – even in Japan. This is unlike mbaqanga that is found only in South Africa and a small part of Zimbabwe.

IM : Who were the leading reggae artists in Africa when you launched into reggae?

LD : I didn’t know anyone in Africa at the time. I only knew of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, but none from Africa.

IM : Did you not ask yourself why there were no African reggae artists?




LD : I knew why. I saw that in South Africa you could not do reggae, as the then apartheid government didn’t like it. It was scary - even listening to Peter Tosh or Bob Marley as you could disappear if the government caught you listening to it.

IM : But that was in an apartheid country. What about independent African countries like Nigeria, Zimbabwe or Kenya. Why were there no reggae artists from there?




LD : Politicians talk of freedom of speech before they are elected. But once they are in power, it’s different. Even in free states, people cannot sing freely.

IM : Was it relatively easy to launch a career in reggae?




LD : No, it was not easy as the government did not want reggae. As a musician, in order to get a career going you need radio and TV. But I could not access those as everyone was keeping away from reggae. Even record companies knew it was not going to go anywhere. So I used mbaqanga as a platform. We started performing at live shows and talking to people at the shows. The people really liked reggae. Even when we went to the studio to record the first album, we had to trick them: they thought we were going to record a Zulu album but we did reggae instead. The record company got angry and no one talked to us!

IM : So when did you put your foot down and say ‘reggae or nothing’?




LD : We carried on playing mbaqanga and then three or five reggae songs in between. Eventually people started liking reggae and we took some record company executives on road shows and they saw that people liked it and went crazy.The execs were scared but eventually they took it.

IM : Today reggae is not as popular, especially with the young people, some of whom prefer dancehall music and bashment instead.




LD : There’s this thing with reggae all the time: when there is a new music brand, people rush and forget about reggae for a little while, but then they go back to reggae. Reggae is not ‘fashion’ music – it is always there. Some years it’s loved very much, other years not so much because of new styles, but people always come back to reggae.

IM : Do you know any African reggae artists here in London?

LD : No.

IM : What do you think may be the reasons why it is not easy for them to launch their careers and become established musicians?

LD : One of the things that makes it hard for them is that people, even Africans, still believe that good reggae can only come from Jamaica. If you had to put up two posters advertising a reggae show: the first poster announcing that two African reggae artists, for example Alpha Blondy and me, will be performing live together; and then put up another poster of an unknown Jamaican reggae singer performing live, people will flock to the Jamaican one. So we still have to work hard!

IM : Do you see a time when there’ll be more Africa reggae musicians in London?




LD : People love reggae in Africa. They’ll always be new reggae artists. But reggae is not like other music where artists come in just to make money. Reggae takes time. Musicians these days are after money that is what makes them runaway from reggae. And [record] companies say ‘reggae is gonna take time and it won’t make money, why don’t you do RnB or hip hop instead?’

IM : A lot of reggae music is about Africa, yet there are very few African reggae musicians. Any idea why?

LD : This is because Jamaicans see Africa as home. It’s funny how people from Africa want to go to Jamaica and people from Jamaica want to go to Africa. We live in Africa but I have been to Jamaica, so I have seen both worlds. I was recently in Jamaica, where we performed at the opening ceremony for the cricket. The South African ambassador there said she gets letters from people there saying they want to go to live in Africa, especially South Africa!