The only Pink Floyd album banned by apartheid in South Africa

Album track “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” has a habit of stomping toes and producing a chemical reaction of defiant fury. The song gained gravitas after gaining traction as a protest anthem and then being banned in South Africa in 1980. Some of the darkest moments in South Africa’s history are thankfully behind them , and apartheid, the implementation of racial segregation – a term coined by the nation – is one of the most horrific.

Waters has always used his fame and celebrity to properly advocate for humanitarian causes around the world, using various topics and actions. While this often contributed to his sometimes sanctimonious demeanor and unwelcome public behavior, it also added an unwavering determination to some of the group’s most cherished works. His rock opera The Wall is, of course, the shining example of these two sides of Waters and Pink Floyd coming together.

Although some of his works may seem a little misaligned, The WallWaters’ artful songwriting not only provided a huge stage spectacle for Pink Floyd fans, nor simply a series of anthems for the region’s disaffected suburban youth. western world, but also gave the poor black children of the South Africa, its own rallying song– a reason to stamp their feet and clench their fists – their own anthem.

South Africa had been entrenched in racial segregation since 1948, its government unapologetically enforcing strict and oppressive rules until the fall of apartheid in 1991. Yet in 1980, a song echoed through South Africa’s schools. African countries long after it has fallen from the top of the system. US Singles Charts. Pink Floyd’s iconic track “Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)” became an anthemic call to arms for children, embodying their resistance and desire for change.

The children were protesting the vast and unjust inequalities between racially segregated schools and singing the song’s lyrics, such as “we don’t need thought control.” It was a way to show their discontent and a resolute way to unite the whole school for a single cause. Even more powerful, it was their unstoppable refrain that “we don’t need education” that made the overseers of apartheid tremble.

At the time, the South African Publications Branch held all the cultural cards when it came to censorship, happy to ban books and records with the simple stroke of a smiling pen and, naturally, song, with its outburst of protest, was quickly in the line of fire. Soon the track and album were deemed “politically or morally undesirable” and removed from shelves in an apparent attempt to censor the growing tide of dissatisfaction that music allowed children to adequately express. “People were really driven into frenzys of rage because of that,” Waters recalled in The guardian.

This would spur Waters into action and see the star refuse to perform in Sun City, South Africa, under apartheid. “Until the fall of apartheid and until whites and blacks enjoy equal rights.” Waters later said that one man who truly understood the power of the song was the Archbishop of Canterbury, who “went publicly”, according to Waters, “saying that if it is very popular with schoolchildren, then it must somehow express certain feelings that they themselves have.

He added: “If you don’t like it, or however you feel about it, you should take the opportunity to use it as a starting point for a discussion – and that’s exactly what I I felt about it. »

The track and album were later performed in Berlin, at the Berlin Wall in 1990 and later in the Israeli West Bank in 2006. Since the events, the song has become a rallying cry for free spirits, a sweet escape in the name of the justice and equal rights that Roger Waters and Pink Floyd defended.

Although banned by the South African government, it remains an anthem for disaffected schoolchildren who will eventually see apartheid dismantled for good. The track and record are a reminder that art can be effective in the most unexpected ways. With the help of Waters’ lyrical storytelling, Pink’s story became one of the most beloved rock stories of all time and rightly deserves its kudos, but it also became a model of social defiance.

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