About Johnny Clegg

Johnny Clegg is a musician from South Africa. Even though I have never met him, he has influenced me greatly. He is called "Zoulou Blanc" (which means "White Zulu") in France. Johnny's music is a mixture of Zulu street music and Celtic folk music. His original band, Juluka (Zulu meaning "sweat" which was the name of Siphu's favorite cow), was a partnership between Johnny and Siphu Mchunu.

In an attempt to understand the culture and the language Johnny sang about, I looked for many ways to learn Zulu. I have many many Zulu dictionaries and grammar books around here. In the process of trying to learn Zulu, I learned Swahili, which is another Bantu language in Africa. Zulu and Swahili share similar grammar structure and have some common words.

In case Johnny reads this... Ngiyabonga kakhulu umfowetu! Asante sana ndugu!