GRAZING IN GRACELAND
Hugh Masakela hasn’t been back to South Africa since he left his homeland 27 years ago to study trumpet in London and New York, but he still feels the pull of those roots.
GRAZING IN GRACELAND
Hugh Masakela hasn’t been back to South Africa since he left his homeland 27 years ago to study trumpet in London and New York, but he still feels the pull of those roots.
"We’re one community, home and abroad, in which everyone serves a particular purpose,” says the veteran pop musician, whose career spans more than two decades, from his 1967 instrumental hit, “Grazing In The Grass” to his featured appearance on Paul Simon’s Graceland tour. “Everytime our music is played, it is a source of pride to all South Africans.”
Which brings us to the controversy over whether Paul Simon’s use of African musicians constitutes a betrayal of the anti-apartheid cultural boycott, a charge Masakela angrily denies.
“The media insists if Paul Simon had not gone to South Africa, it would’ve been freed by now,” he scoffs. “What’s oppressing our country is right in your own backyard. Since I came to the U.S. in 1960, those who seek African liberation have been called communists.