Brenda Fassie - Black President (Aye Nelson Mandela)

Brenda Fassie - My Black President (A Tribute To Nelson Mandela) video & lyrics

This post showcases Brenda Fassie's song "My Black President". This song was composed, recorded, and released in 1983 as a tribute to Nelson Mandela who was  imprisoned in South Africa for his anti-apartheid actions. Fassie added another verse to this song when Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa in 1994. She sang this song during Nelson Mandela's inauguration.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, historical, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

*
Nelson Mandela
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela
"[Nelson] Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. An international campaign lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990 amid escalating civil strife [in the nation of South Africa]."
-snip-
From http://www.ask.com/question/when-did-nelson-mandela-become-president
"Nelson Mandela became president on 10th May 1994 after South Africa's first multi-racial elections were held on 27 April 1994. The African National Congress (ANC) won 62% of the votes in the election, and Mandela, as leader of the ANC, was inaugurated as the country's first black President. He presided over the transition from minority rule and apartheid, winning international respect for his advocacy of national and international reconciliation."


Brenda Fassie
From http://www.answers.com/topic/brenda-fassie#ixzz2mrnELZhT
"Known as the "Madonna of the Townships" or simply as the "undisputed queen of the vocals," and generally deemed one of South Africa's biggest female pop stars of recent years, Brenda Fassie [born in 1964] notched a long string of infectious pop hits. Her music was deeply woven into the fabric of South African life, and more than once her music played a role in the country's tumultuous political scene. A major talent whose popularity survived several waves of musical fashion and extended at its height to Europe and the United States, Fassie struggled with personal demons before dying a tragically early death in 2004.

By 1983 Fassie had formed an act of her own called Brenda and the Big Dudes, and that year she had a breakthrough hit with "Weekend Special," singing in the disco-flavored "bubblegum" style. "Weekend Special" sold over 200,000 copies and had an extended life in cover versions and remixes, including one by New York producer Van Gibbs in 1986 that spent eight weeks on Billboard magazine's Hot Black Singles chart. The song's international success led to a Fassie tour of the United States, Europe, Australia, and Brazil.

After parting ways with the Big Dudes, Fassie partnered with producer Sello "Chicco" Twala to record the 1989 album Too Late for Mama. Among several hits that became widely known in South Africa's black townships was "Black President," a single that looked forward to the dismantling of the country's apartheid system. That song was banned for a time by the South African government, but Fassie's popularity only increased."...


LYRICS: MY BLACK PRESIDENT
(Brenda Fassie)

The year 1963
The people's president
Was taken away by security men
All dressed in a uniform
The brutality, brutality
Oh no, my, my black president

Him and his comrades
Were sentenced to isolation
For many painful years
For many painful years
Many painful years
Of hard labor

They broke rocks
But the spirit was never broken
Never broken
Oh no, my, my black president

Hmm maa, hmm maa, hmm ma mama
Hmm maa, hmm maa, hmm ma mama
Hmm maa, hmm maa, hmm ma Madiba
Hmm maa, hmm maa, hmm ma Madiba
Ahh uyem-yem

They broke rocks
But the spirit was never broken
Never broken
Oh my black president

Let us rejoice for our president
Let us sing for our president
Let us pray for our president
Let us sing, let us dance
For Madiba, Madiba's freedom

Now in 1990
The people's president
Came out from jail
Raised up his hand and said
"Viva, viva, my people"

He walked the long road
Back, back to freedom
Back to freedom
Freedom for my black president

Let us rejoice for our president
Let us sing for our president
et us pray for our president
Let us sing, let us dance
For Madiba, Madiba's freedom

We thank You Lord,
For listening to our prayers
Oh, my president

I will die for my president
I will sing for my president
I will stand and say
Viva, viva, viva, viva, viva, viva my president


RIP Mandiba Nelson Mandela (18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013)

Brenda Fassie - Good Black Woman

Lyrics for Good Black Woman by Brenda

early on monday morning police arrest my brother for working for a black

community monday afternoon went to see my brother police man treated me like a donkey i say to police man you've got a bad attitude oh no am no crimnal am a good black woman i say to police man you've got a bad attitude oh mama am no crimanl am a good black woman hmmm... oh gboshi mamama egutan ga lu to oh mama oh mama yo mama oh yele leye ye mama oh mama oh mama early on monday morning police arrest my brother for working for a black community monday afternoon went to see my brother oh mama police man treated me like a donkey eziganezetu tula mama

Brenda Fassie
Iconic but erratic singer who was South Africa's first black pop star

Brenda Fassie died on 9 May 2004 after been found in a coma from a drug overdose . She   was South Africa's first black pop star, selling millions of albums during a two-decade career. Recent pilgrims to her hospital bedside, while she was in a coma, included Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela, a measure of her importance to her country.

However, dying as she lived, Fassie was pursued to her grave by controversy. Local media have been full of reports of squabbles between her lover, gospel singer Gloria Chaka, and her family; between her manager Peter Snyman and her producer Chicco Twala; and speculation that the coma which preceded her death was induced not by an asthma attack, as her family claimed, but by yet another drug incident.

Fassie was the youngest of nine children, born into a desperately poor family in the Cape Town township of Langa. Her father died when she was two, and her mother, a cleaner, recognised her daughter's talent early on.

By the age of four, Brenda, named after the US country singer Brenda Lee, was performing at church events, accompanied by her mother on the piano. At the age of 16, she left for Soweto to seek her fortune as a singer, first with the local vocal trio Joy, and later fronting the township pop group Brenda And The Big Dudes.

In 1983, she released her debut recording, Weekend Special, a lament about a boyfriend who would see her only at weekends. It was an instant hit, eventually taking the group to the US, Brazil, Europe and Australia, and was rapidly followed by several more hits, including It's Nice To Be With People and No No No, Senor.

Revelling in her new-found fame, Fassie lavished money on cars, houses and extravagant parties. She had a son, Bongani, by a fellow Big Dudes musician; a 1989 marriage to a businessman was annulled a year later.

This disappointment appeared to derail Fassie. She became addicted to hard drugs and her career suffered. She fired managers, was sued by promoters for failing to turn up at concerts, and, in 1992, was fined for assaulting a photo-journalist. She got into financial difficulties and lost her house. Bongani was expelled from school because his mother did not pay the fees.

In 1994, the year of South Africa's first democratic elections, Fassie unsuccessfully attempted a comeback with Abantu Bayakhuluma (The People Speak), after which she sank into cocaine addiction, renting a room in a sleazy Johannesburg hotel with her female lover, Poppy Sihlahla. Only after Sihlahla died of an overdose did Fassie pull herself together and go into rehab.

Shortly afterwards, she released Memeza, with its hit single Vulindlela. It became South Africa's biggest-selling album in 1998, and was followed by an album a year for the next four years. The money rolled in again, and Fassie resumed her lavish lifestyle.

A talented musician, her genius lay in her ability to reinvent herself, and give voice to the frustrations and aspirations of the township. She started off as a pop queen but, politicised by growing up in Langa at a time of tremendous upheaval - the 1976 student uprisings had deeply affected her school - she easily tapped into the political militancy of the 1980s.

In 1990, she released the single Black President, a tribute to the still imprisoned Nelson Mandela, which was banned by the apartheid regime. She stopped singing in English, declaring: "I am proud to be an African." All her subsequent songs were in Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho. When kwaito, the first authentically African sound in decades, emerged from Soweto street parties in the early 1990s, Fassie adopted the genre as her own.

She also inspired by example. When she confessed to drug and drink addiction, other prominent musicians went public about theirs. When she took her first lesbian lover, other black celebrities came out of the closet. She is survived by her son.

· Brenda Fassie, pop singer, born November 3 1964; died May 9 2004

VULINDLELA - BRENDA FASSIE ( South Africa's first Black Pop Star)

Vul'indlela
Vul’indlela wemamgobhozi (Open the gates, Miss Gossip) He unyana wam (My baby boy) Helele uyashada namhlanje (Is getting married today) Vul’indlela wela ma ngiyabuza (Open the gates please) Msuba nomona (Don’t be jealous) Unyana wami uthathile (My son has had a good catch) Bengingazi ngiyombon’umakoti (I never thought I’d see a daughter in law) Unyana wam eh ujongile this time (My son has been accepted (woman said yes)) Makgadi fele usenzo s’cede (Help us finish the ceremony (you are welcome)) Uzemshadweni ngiyashadisa namhlanje (Come to the wedding, I’m taking my son to the altar today) Bebesithi unyana wam lisoka (People said my son is (someone who doesn’t get women)) Bebesithi angeke ashade vul’indlela (People said he would never get married but open the gates)


Brenda Fassie
Iconic but erratic singer who was South Africa's first black pop star

Brenda Fassie died on 9 May 2004 after been found in a coma from a drug overdose . She   was South Africa's first black pop star, selling millions of albums during a two-decade career. Recent pilgrims to her hospital bedside, while she was in a coma, included Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela, a measure of her importance to her country.

However, dying as she lived, Fassie was pursued to her grave by controversy. Local media have been full of reports of squabbles between her lover, gospel singer Gloria Chaka, and her family; between her manager Peter Snyman and her producer Chicco Twala; and speculation that the coma which preceded her death was induced not by an asthma attack, as her family claimed, but by yet another drug incident.

Fassie was the youngest of nine children, born into a desperately poor family in the Cape Town township of Langa. Her father died when she was two, and her mother, a cleaner, recognised her daughter's talent early on.

By the age of four, Brenda, named after the US country singer Brenda Lee, was performing at church events, accompanied by her mother on the piano. At the age of 16, she left for Soweto to seek her fortune as a singer, first with the local vocal trio Joy, and later fronting the township pop group Brenda And The Big Dudes.

In 1983, she released her debut recording, Weekend Special, a lament about a boyfriend who would see her only at weekends. It was an instant hit, eventually taking the group to the US, Brazil, Europe and Australia, and was rapidly followed by several more hits, including It's Nice To Be With People and No No No, Senor.

Revelling in her new-found fame, Fassie lavished money on cars, houses and extravagant parties. She had a son, Bongani, by a fellow Big Dudes musician; a 1989 marriage to a businessman was annulled a year later.

This disappointment appeared to derail Fassie. She became addicted to hard drugs and her career suffered. She fired managers, was sued by promoters for failing to turn up at concerts, and, in 1992, was fined for assaulting a photo-journalist. She got into financial difficulties and lost her house. Bongani was expelled from school because his mother did not pay the fees.

In 1994, the year of South Africa's first democratic elections, Fassie unsuccessfully attempted a comeback with Abantu Bayakhuluma (The People Speak), after which she sank into cocaine addiction, renting a room in a sleazy Johannesburg hotel with her female lover, Poppy Sihlahla. Only after Sihlahla died of an overdose did Fassie pull herself together and go into rehab.

Shortly afterwards, she released Memeza, with its hit single Vulindlela. It became South Africa's biggest-selling album in 1998, and was followed by an album a year for the next four years. The money rolled in again, and Fassie resumed her lavish lifestyle.

A talented musician, her genius lay in her ability to reinvent herself, and give voice to the frustrations and aspirations of the township. She started off as a pop queen but, politicised by growing up in Langa at a time of tremendous upheaval - the 1976 student uprisings had deeply affected her school - she easily tapped into the political militancy of the 1980s.

In 1990, she released the single Black President, a tribute to the still imprisoned Nelson Mandela, which was banned by the apartheid regime. She stopped singing in English, declaring: "I am proud to be an African." All her subsequent songs were in Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho. When kwaito, the first authentically African sound in decades, emerged from Soweto street parties in the early 1990s, Fassie adopted the genre as her own.

She also inspired by example. When she confessed to drug and drink addiction, other prominent musicians went public about theirs. When she took her first lesbian lover, other black celebrities came out of the closet. She is survived by her son.

· Brenda Fassie, pop singer, born November 3 1964; died May 9 2004