VivienLancellotti Review of Under African Skies

Under African Skies (2012)

This is my impression of this musical, political, humane documentary.

[10/10 · 10 November 2012]

This is the morning after my watching Under African Skies, the documentary movie on Paul Simon and the artists he collaborated with for the Graceland record, some of whom were part of the group Artists Against Apartheid. They jammed, recorded, and later toured with the music that joined white and black cultures in a time where these were in the thick of aggression in South Africa. Simon travelled to where the roots of rhythm were to be found, joining his poetic lyrics to his fellow's music, with their indescribable vividness and rawness, blending African lyrics like "If there is no chicken/You can hunt an owl,/Take its head off and/It looks like a chicken./We eat it on the train" with "she's got diamonds on the soles of her shoes..." He was in South Africa during the culmination of Apartheid, before Nelson Mandela was released from jail. Graceland took two years to make after his ten-day visit to the country. Three weeks after its successful release, it received its first and totally unexpected criticism. It came from the ANC, stating that Simon had extracted and promoted music from South Africa thus breaching the UN decree to boycott the country in all international acts, which was upheld as a last-resort effort against the Apartheid regime. Together with his musical companions Simon had given the world a gem, as some of the best South African musicians joined hands, and voices, and hearts with him to record and tour. Together they created a pure sensation. The listening world received a key of access that would give the battered country a focus of attention under a positive light while, throughout the disastrous regime, many had hopelessly ignored it. They toured in America, Europe, Africa, always under the threat of political aggression connected to reactions to the claims made by the ANC. From another front they were backed by the collaboration of artists like Miriam Makeba, to whose life the film was dedicated. Makeba was one of the many exiled from their homeland, not even being granted permission to attend her own daughter's funeral. The segregation and violence regime robbed South Africans of their land, their integrity, their freedom. The musicians of Graceland, those wizards of groove and soul, gave everything they had to share and contributed to its termination. When Mandela was finally released from jail he personally welcomed Simon to perform Graceland in his country. The film was documented as Simon reunited with the South African musicians of Graceland, 25 years after its initial release, in celebration.