As a part of the Outside-in Cinema screenings in Experimedia here at the Library, on Wednesday 20th October at 6:30pm you can watch the 2002 documentary Amandla! : a revolution in four-part harmony. The film looks at the way that music helped the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

For an earlier view on this topic, the 1979 documentary Rhythm of resistance, available for request through the Library catalogue and then viewing within the Audio Visual Centre, gives a similarly strong take on the reactions of practicing musicians living under the regime, though at a time when the end was still many years away.

Jumping nearly a decade on, the short research title Afro-American music, South Africa, and apartheid, available for request through the catalogue and viewing in the Heritage Collections Reading Room, gives a more academic, ethno-musicological approach to the subject matter, starting off with a look at the worldwide acclaim of Paul Simon’s then-recent Graceland album.

Finally, for a broader look at the role artists took as apartheid was dismantled, the 2009 title Art and the end of apartheid, available for requesting via the catalogue and viewing anywhere within the Library, covers a wide variety of points of retrospection, from the uncovering of art long hidden and/or censored, to the defiance of artists maintaining a public voice within such an oppressive environment.

More titles on these and related topics can be browsed through at the screening.