Killed Beaten Raped: Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia

Graham Peebles Nation of Change
It is a society operating in defiance of all manner of human rights that has been clearly seen and exposed; as the thousands of Ethiopians protesting outside Saudi Arabian embassies across the world have chanted; “shame on you, shame on you, shame on you.”

Johannesburg

'Bluesologist' Gil Scott-Heron  asks, 'What's the word from Johannesburg? They tell me our brothers over there are defyin' the Man' in the youth uprising of 1976. 'We all need to be strugglin' if we're goin' to be free.' 

Friday Nite Videos -- Dec 6, 2013 (Mandela)

Portside
Music has always been a powerful expression and organizing tool of the oppressed people of South Africa. Here is music inspired by and supporting their struggles, including the artists Hugh Masakela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Johnny Clegg and Gil Scott-Heron.

Coal Train

South African jazz musician Hugh Masakela tells the story of the life and labor of the immigrant coal and gold miners of South Africa, so hard that they curse the coal trains that brought them.

Asimbonanga

Nelson Mandela makes a surprise appearance in this Johnny Clegg performance of Asimbonanga after the unbanning. The lyrics are powerful protest against the imprisonment of Mandela and his comrades a sense of loss for the murdered Steve Biko and others.

Soweto

Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly Dollar Brand), a founder of the African jazz movement, dedicated this composition to the 1970s youth-led uprising in Soweto, South Africa. It opens with the faint cry of a child. The accompanying images draw on both the apartheid era and the triumph over it.