South African Music: The Muffinz

Continuing the notion of music as a means of delivering a message that can transcend borders and cultures, a South African band, The Muffinz, is another example of delivering a version of the world as they see it. In their song, "The Ghetto," they describe a corrupt and unjust system that mistreats the poor and exploited in their society.  They even go so far to use other words for ghetto in different languages to highlight the commonality of this system of exploitation of the underprivileged and overlooked.  Which after watching movies like District 9 and Tsosti, as well as looking through the recent news, we can gather near systemic and deep rooted turbulence that exists in such a geographically gorgeous and rich place.  And even with the handing over of power and territory back to its original people that we read about in Disgrace, it is still a messy business.  While Pussy Riot expresses their emotions with percussive and tonal rage through punk rock, The Muffinz use a more smooth approach.  The message of injustice is still there, just expressed in a different way, demonstrating the flexibility of music and human expression about similar topics.