How Sixto Rodriguez inspired apartheid South Africa
The 2012 documentary Searching for Sugarman was written and directed by the Swedish filmmaker Malik Bendejlloul and tells of two Cape Town music fans in the late 1990s who, amid false rumours of his death, try to track down the late American musician Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, more commonly known by his stage name, Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was an American singer-songwriter who developed a strong following in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand despite hardly being known in his home country. However, despite Rodriguez’s success in South Africa, little was known about him outside of his music. The mystery surrounding a pivotal folk star inspired Stephen ‘Sugar’ Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom to search for the singer at the end of the 20th century.
The Detroit-born singer-songwriter had recorded two albums in the 1970s, Cold Fact in 1970 and Coming from Reality in 1971. However, after poor sales, he quit the music industry in 1976, and few heard from him after that date. In fact, there were rumours that Rodriguez had committed suicide, disappearing off the face of the earth.
Eventually, the two Cape Towners did track down their favourite singer, and off the back of their movie, he enjoyed a worldwide career revival, even in America. Searching for Sugar Man won an Academy Award, and Rodriguez himself was given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
What’s interesting about Rodriguez is that his music was taken up in South Africa and not America. South Africa had, of course, been in the midst of apartheid during the latter part of the 20th century, and Rodriguez’s privileged white youth listenership was inspired by his working-class lyrics to fight for their black counterparts.
Take, for instance, the lyrics to ‘I Wonder’, as Rodriguez sings: “I wonder how many times you’ve been had/And I wonder how many plans have gone bad […] I wonder about the tears in children’s eyes/And I wonder about the soldier that dies/ I wonder will this hatred ever end… do you wonder?”
It’s clear that the narrator of the song is questioning the feelings of those who are not entirely like him, and it was a perfect remedy for the racially unjust situation in South Africa. Music can often find a way of breaking into complex paradigms, and Rodriguez’s words resonated.
Evidently, Rodriguez’s impact on the country was as great as Bob Dylan’s had been on America, which made South Africans wonder why no one had heard of him abroad. The truth is the strict censorship of culture as per the apartheid regime and a lack of contact with the outside world ensured South Africans felt that Rodriguez was truly theirs.
Rodriguez had commented on the apartheid in 2013, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “I knew about the boycott, and I knew about the economic sanctions to South Africa, but that’s about it. I knew about Stephen Biko, and I knew about Soweto. But I didn’t know the depth of the government repression.”
His albums were mostly bootlegged, which explains why even the artist himself was unaware of his success abroad, but thanks to the 2012 documentary, perhaps the struggle was worth the amazing story. Rodriguez passed away at the age of 81, but his spirit will live on forever through his music.
