How ‘bad girl’ Brenda Fassie’s ‘Vulindlela’ became South Africa’s post-apartheid anthem
The popularity of the pop singer who broke norms of sexuality and respectability raises questions about the place of marginalised identities in the country.
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In 1997, South Africa’s most famous music star had a huge hit. Brenda Fassie’s Vulindlela became a national pop anthem, played especially at weddings and celebrations.
Vulindlela can be loosely translated from the Zulu language as an instruction to “make way” or, if you like, “clear the path”. The song is about making way for the groom (and bride) at their wedding. In 1997, South Africa was emerging from the racist apartheid system, and was celebrating its own “wedding” across the colour bar after democratic elections in 1994.
Apartheid and its policy of separate development for different ethnic groups made Black women like Fassie vulnerable and subject to rural existence or life in townships. These were residential areas on the outskirts of cities designated for Black people by the white minority rulers. Yet Fassie defied all norms.
Born in 1964, she began her rise to fame in the townships in the 1980s but soon took over the nation’s airwaves. She died at the age of 40 in 2004. Her hit songs – like Weekend Special, Too Late for Mama and Black President – encompassed disco and pop energies, political statements, ballads and...
