Lucky Dube’s Xenophobic stance

In 2001, Lucky Dube, the slain iconic South African reggae musician had been singing for 15 years when he released the album titled Soul Taker. Six years after the release of this album, precisely on October 18, 2007, 43-year-old Dube was shot and murdered in the ‎Rosettenville suburb in Johannesburg. His three compatriots that murdered him thought he was Nigerian.

This is why when this week I was listening to Dube’s Soul Taker album I came across track number 4 called Teach the World which pretty much reminded me of the ongoing xenophobic violence in South Africa.

One of the many reviewers of the album took a special interest in this track. I remember one critique described it as ‘a snarling political putdown, whose message may be aimed at the U.S. or South Africa or maybe Colombia -- it's not really clear which’.

In the track Dube sings ‘It takes a million people to build up a good reputation’/But it takes one stupid fool to destroy everything they have done.

He then sings that ‘The world knows your people as the most violent in the world/ The world knows your nation as the most oppressive in the world’.

In the song Dube then encouraged people to ‘Take it upon yourself to restore your nation's dignity’.

The chorus is where the title track is derived from as it sings: ‘Teach the world/Teach them right’

‘It takes a million lives to get the respect you deserve

When people see your kind, some of them would run a mile

The world knows your people as a nation of crooks

Everyone around you should always keep their eyes opened

The world knows your nation as a nation of drug lords

Everyone blames your people for the destruction of the world

Take it upon yourself to restore your nation's dignity’.

When one hears Lucky Dube’s rallying encouragement that each and every person, as a member of his or her country should take it upon themselves to restore their country’s dignity, I guessed he should be turning in his graves looking at what has become of South Africa.

While South Africans can indeed be blamed for their inhuman reactions towards fellow human beings, the targeted foreign nationals, especially of Nigerian descent, also need to take a stock of their undertakings in South Africa. We have a lot of good South African and Nigerian people but the few individuals who are destroying lives through trafficking of drugs and of course, criminal activities in the name of cleansing itself of the foreign curse, really do need to take heed of Dube’s words in the track ‘Teach the World’.

Apparently, what is happening is not the kind of lessons that Dube preached about.  Like the other music critique pointed out back in 2001 when the album came out, USA, South Africa, Colombia and Nigerians were suspects.

Now when you look at the current xenophobic violence, one thing that is very clear is that it has ‘polarized’ narratives.

I am in a social media group with South African music producers who themselves are divided over whether or not foreigners must leave South African soil. While some strongly believe foreign nationals have messed up the SA economy, others are of the view that they have turned it into a drug basket where many youths have been hooked into using it and have now become useless vegetables.

It is here where Dube's track Teach the World pleads with those nationals that are damaging the reputation of their respective countries to start changing the narrative.

Let's agree there is too much influx of foreigners into South Africa that has made or break their economy besides soiling their social fabric. The reputation countries are creating in failure to host their own, due to either bad policies or utter incompetence to govern, has led to this causal sequence that has affected the region in general and South Africa in particular.

The track tells us one thing; musicians are futurists who see things from a distance and send warnings in the exact way that genuine biblical prophets used to do.

The second lesson to draw from the track is that it is folly for anyone, let alone musician, to bury their heads in the sand over man made political mishaps that threatens to derail a country from its national course.

It is only when musicians take a leading position to guide the people, that a country won’t let few greedy individuals take the country down the drain. It is therefore important to stand up and be counted through music by ‘teaching the world’ as Lucky Dube did in this track.