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The Ballad of Jequ Ngcobo

from Live Bait (concerts etc) by Kalahari Surfers

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about

performed Live at the Playhouse in Durban 1997 recorded by Michael Cross
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lyrics inspired by the following event described in the New York Times thus:
"DURBAN, South Africa, Oct. 13 1990 —
......On Tuesday, a gang of up to 20 zulu youths stole knives from a souvenir shop near the city's popular beachfront and went on a rampage, stabbing and wounding eight white pedestrians. Two of their victims remain hospitalized in serious condition.
The gang leader, Jequ Ngcobo, whom the police described as a religious fanatic, was shot and wounded by an off-duty rookie policeman after his friend, a policewoman, was stabbed in the neck. Six other suspects have been captured.....Some gang members carried membership cards and wore T-shirts of the militant Pan-Africanist Congress, which wants white ''settlers'' expelled from Africa."

lyrics

The Ballad ofJequ Ngcobo:
The beach front is cold tonight
A west wind blows out to the sea
Maybe rain will wash the blood from our land
a young man spoke quietly
There’ll be freedom in 1990
for the black man the planets are right
He says I am the son of Holy John Africa
follow me
I am the way
the truth is a knife
follow me to the kingdom
The blood of the lamb shall run with me
and kill
kill everyone

Sharpen your knives let no wizard survive
bulala abathagathi
They ride at full moon on the back of baboons holding onto the tail they sing
Songs to the dead they visit your dreams like the owl that lives in this tree
When the sun comes up
it changes back into a man it screams
I am the way
the truth is a knife
follow me to the kingdom
The blood of the lamb shall run with me
and kill
kill everyone
West Street Tuesday morning
shopping families on the run
Holiday makers slashed
like lawn mowed
under Durban sun
Cut away the branches you’ll see the trees feel the blades of Holy John Africa

credits

from Live Bait (concerts etc), released December 12, 1999

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Kalahari Surfers South Africa

Warrick Sony is a South African composer, producer, musician and sound designer.
He is the founder and sole permanent member of the Kalahari Surfers. They made politically radical satirical music in 1980s South Africa.

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