Soweto Blues

This song, originally by Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba, two exiled South African anti-apartheid musicians, tells the horrific story of the Soweto Massacre of 1976. Between 200 and 600 people died in the riots, many of them schoolchildren. The climax of the song is sung in Xhosa and translates to, "Where were the men, when the children were throwing stones, when the children were being shot? Where were you?" The irony in these questions is that the men were conscripted to work in coalmines away from home, thus leaving their families defenseless.

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Watch our documentary from our last trip to South Africa in March 2010 (Directed by Chris Hanson)