Murdered South African reggae singer Lucky Dube got a fitting memorial service in Johannesburg last week. Artists, fans and family packed the Bassline nightclub in Newtown, Johannesburg, last Wednesday.
The venue, adorned with flowers and Dube’s posters, is a popular spot for artists to perform and launch new albums. Singer Sipho Mabuse said Dube, who was killed in a botched carjacking in Johannesburg on 18 October, was a hero in South Africa and throughout the world.
Music executive Ivor Haarburger said Dube, who recorded 22 albums, was a `reserved, amazing performer. We have lost a lot.’
Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the country’s main trade union, said the working class and the poor were the main victims of crime in South Africa and that Dube’s death should be a wake-up call for South Africans to unite against crime. ‘This atrocity highlights the grim reality of the daily carnage on our streets, the main victims of which are working people and the poor.’
Vavi quoted from one of Dube’s popular songs, saying the words underlined that everyone could be affected by crime.
The lyrics were: ‘Do you ever worry about leaving home and coming back in a coffin, with a bullet through your head?’
Letters of condolence from the presidents of Gambia and Senegal were read to the crowd, which included mem¬bers of the bare-footed Shembe congregation of which Dube was a member.
There was also a protest march in Johannesburg. And a near-riot as fans struggled to get into the club where the memorial was held. Other mourners spoke of the cruel irony that an artist who spoke out against crime should him¬self have been a crime victim. Dube’s song Rastas Never Die was played at the service.
Coinciding with the memo¬rial was the protest march organised by the Creative Worker’s Union. Their general secretary, Oupa Lebogu, said tackling crime was everyone’s responsibility.
`This is a collective effort. We can make a difference if we all work together, and I believe that it is up to individ¬uals that we stop being specta¬tors when wrong things hap¬pen in front of us: he said.
South Africa’s crime wave cost an estimated 20,000 lives in the past year. But the memorial was less about protest than it was a traditional African celebration of an icon. Dube, 43, was killed as he dropped off his two teen¬age children at a relative’s home. Police have arrested five men in connection with the killing.
His murder has also been lamented by Thabo Mbeki, South Africa’s president and by thousands of fans across the world.
Dube was buried yesterday.
