Amandla! A Revolution in Four-part Harmony

A new documentary film about the end of apartheid highlights the central role of music in black South Africa's successful struggle for liberation.

"Amandla!," which opened in Manhattan earlier this year, is slowly making its way across America and around the world. The New York Times review described the film as "threading together interviews and archival clips, with a percolating soundtrack" that features the music of Hugh Masakela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Brahim and other artists, many of whom were exiled during the apartheid era.

"Amandla" means "power" in Xhosa, one of the local languages of South Africa. The film demonstrates the enormous power that music holds, perhaps no more so than in the scene in which we learn from the former head of riot control that even his heavily armed troops were "terrified" of the young crowds engaged in the high-stepping dance and chant called "Toyi Toyi."

The film is partly dedicated to the memory of Vuyisile Mini, a composer who was hanged in 1964 and buried in a pauper's grave for his political activism. At the end of the film we see him given a proper burial as a national hero at a state funeral.

Visit the Amandla! site (which contains film clips, biographies, press, links, etc.)

Listen to a one-hour live special on the NPR show "The Connection" (March 14, 2003, produced by WBUR - Boston)

The Amandla! soundtrack is now available (for example, at Amazon.com, w/ audio samples and customer reviews)

Amandla! is now showing in South Africa, with limited release in the US. Find out where it is currently showing near you

Read the entire New York Times film review by A. O. Scott