Tuesday, December 04, 2018
When South Africa Banned Pink Floyd's The Wall After Students Chanted "We Don't Need No Education" to Protest the Apartheid School System (1980)
Open Culture: When Apartheid states get the blessing of powerful nations, lobbies, and corporations, they seem to feel empowered to do whatever they want. Such was the case, for a time, in South Africa, the country that coined the term when it put its version of racial segregation in place in 1948. The Apartheid system finally collapsed in 1991, decades after its counterpart in the U.S.—its undoing the accumulated weight of global condemnation, UN sanction, boycotts, and growing pressure from citizens in wealthy countries.
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It is no surprise to me that such a segregated society would find a voice in Pink Floyd's music. The lyrics, and musical pieces written speak to the cultural, political, and personal beliefs of not only the writer, but the society as a whole. The iconic line, "We don't need no education," is so simple. It can be tossed around by people just not wanting to attend school. However, as a legitimate protest it fights back against an education system that wants to filter what young people are exposed to. We ban things we are afraid of, it doesn't matter if it's a "good," or a "bad" thing. We try to hide these things because we don't want to have to think about them, and the consequences they may bring. Even in the US, many organizations (schools, churches, etc.) advocate for the banning of certain media. Many of our great American classics have been challenged, and taken out of school reading programs for the messages they share. A lot of changes are made through the young people of a country, and they chose to use music as their form of protest. This is very common, because as long as there is a problem, there will be protest songs, like Fortunate Son, or Killing in the Name. Pink Floyd, and The Wall, no matter when you listen to it will always be reminiscent of protest, and fighting a system that will tell you what to do.
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