Monday, November 05, 2007
Farewell, Lucky… by Jon Hatch
While reading the paper last Saturday, I was shocked to read that South African reggae superstar Lucky Dube was murdered during an attempted carjacking. He was 43. Most of you have never heard of him, and I’ll admit that I knew about him because reggae- particularly the political variety- is one of my passions. Yet I can assure you that Lucky Dube (pronounced DOO-bay) enjoyed a level of popularity in Africa that most western musicians could not possibly fathom.
Lucky was a tireless activist for peace and social justice in South Africa and beyond. During the darkest days of the Apartheid regime, his music was regularly banned from the radio and public performance. Yet he never wavered to saying exactly what he had to say. His life and music were a testimony to the human capacity to speak truth to those in power and testify to music’s ability to act as a spark for radical social change.
His senseless murder makes him another statistic in post-Apartheid South Africa’s maelstrom of violent crime, a problem that affects all levels of society, black and white.
YWAM Belfast has often sent our DTS outreaches to South Africa, and sponsored nine young black South Africans to live and work with us here in Belfast. It is a nation and people that are close to many of our hearts. Keep South Africa in your prayers as the nation struggles against problems that would (and have) crippled other nations: violent crime, massive economic inequities, and an AIDS rate of 40%.
Now South Africa has also lost one of their greatest voices of freedom, justice, and peace.
Rest in peace, Lucky.
Lucky was a tireless activist for peace and social justice in South Africa and beyond. During the darkest days of the Apartheid regime, his music was regularly banned from the radio and public performance. Yet he never wavered to saying exactly what he had to say. His life and music were a testimony to the human capacity to speak truth to those in power and testify to music’s ability to act as a spark for radical social change.
His senseless murder makes him another statistic in post-Apartheid South Africa’s maelstrom of violent crime, a problem that affects all levels of society, black and white.
YWAM Belfast has often sent our DTS outreaches to South Africa, and sponsored nine young black South Africans to live and work with us here in Belfast. It is a nation and people that are close to many of our hearts. Keep South Africa in your prayers as the nation struggles against problems that would (and have) crippled other nations: violent crime, massive economic inequities, and an AIDS rate of 40%.
Now South Africa has also lost one of their greatest voices of freedom, justice, and peace.
Rest in peace, Lucky.
