The Real Funky Chicken???

POLITICAL CLOUT OR POLITICAL CLOWN?
Freshly Ground's new song 'Chicken to Change' from the album Radio Africa has been met with praise for their brilliance and bravery in 'finally writing a political song' and speaking out on Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe.

The music video, made in conjunction with ZA news, features a latex Mugabe promising to "be faithful and bare true allegiance to Zimbabwe", before riding off in the back of a car, reading a newspaper, the Bob Times. The lyrics describe Mugabe as once 'noble, a conquerer, a supernova' who promised to open doors for his nation but now 'sleeps with the key'.

Its been a while since I last heard a mainstream,openly "political" song on the radio, it seems they're heeding Julius Malema's call to make political music and not love. But is it possible, perhaps that Freshly Ground is getting more praise than they deserve?

Scathamiya, Maskandi and Mbaqanga music is constantly politicised. From Phuzekhemisi's 'Njalo Nje' to Izongane Zoma's banned song 'Msholozi', such stories have been told in a more believable and real manner.

Meet my friend Kay. She seems to believe Freshly Ground are riding the 'cool and conscious neo-liberal' bandwagon. This harks back to the Mo-hawked, all Muscle man I saw at the gym with Che Guevara on his bicep; or the rows and rows of Steve Biko t-shirts sold at ridiculous prices at high-end stores. Yet again, it has become cool to be conscious.

The Conscious-for-Cool trend makes it rounds every few years, resuscitating along with it the ghosts of greats that went before it. Bob Marley bags; Nelson Mandela shirts; hip,catchy slogan tees. The casualities of the trend(and there are always casualities) are of course the information and the message.You cant really fit MLK's 'I have a dream' speech on a cap, but you could probably diffuse into the brain through song. So I guess Kay's arguement, is that given the platform afforded to them,Chicken to Change had the potential to become a whole lot more.

Unfortunately, the situation in Zimbabwe has been this way for too long. Social commentary has run dry. Political jokes are dry and Newspapers only have space for Zimbabwe in the cartoons section. It seems one the biggest socio-economic crisis in the Sub-Sahara has been relegated to satire and mockery. The only postive. At least somebody's still talking about it.