Black Homelands and The Trail of Tears

Removal of black South Africans to homelands is similar in horrific scope to the North American Tail of Tears due to greed of Indigenous people land.

Sun City located in the Soho Hotel and Casino in one of the most popular resorts in South Africa. Sun City became famous because of a 1985 protest song; it was located within the Bantustan of Bophuthatswana, one of ten homelands created by the South African government that forcibly relocated its black population as part of the removal of black Africans to Bantustans or homelands.

Sun City became famous because of a protest song

As a part of Apartheid, black South Africans were not allowed to live in the white appointed areas. In order to pursue the policy of separate development, the apartheid-era government of the time dictated that ten fragmented homelands would be spread across South Africa and Namibia.

Sun City was a 1985 protest album and song recorded by Artists United Against Apartheid to convey opposition to the South African policy of apartheid. The album and title song Sun City declared that all the artists involved would refuse to perform at Sun City. Sun City was a resort complex for whites in the black homeland of Bophuthatswana.

The protest album Sun City musically battled against the Bantu Authority Act, Act 68 of 1951, which provided for the establishment of Black homelands and regional authorities. Fifty-four artists including Run DMC, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Pat Benatar, Hall and Oates, Santana, Afrika Bambaataa, Bonnie Raitt, and the Fat Boys took part in the homeland protest song.

The homelands started around the mid twentieth century, and ended in the late twentieth century, around the mid-1990s. In total, ten homelands were created in South Africa. These were the Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Venda, Gazankulu, KaNgwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa, and QwaQwa. The homelands were designed for specific ethnic groups.

The removal of black Africans to homelands is similar in scope to the North American Tail of Tears. Orphan Child is a protest voice, drum, and hand percussion song from the Five Nations heritage, Choctaw and Cherokee in particular during and following the Trail of Tears.

Beginning in 1831 to 1848 respectfully, nearly many thousands of Indigenous people or Native Americans lived in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida particularly the Choctaw in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana; Creeks in Georgia and Alabama and the Seminoles in Florida were removed forcibly to the Indian colonization zone, current state of Oklahoma.

The Trail of Tears come about because white settlers wanted to grow cotton on the Indigenous people land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk hundreds of miles to a specially designated Indian territory across the Mississippi River. The Trail of Tears is over 5,043 miles long and covers nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Indian reservations still remain to this very day.

Did you know? The Sun City record featured The Sun City protest song by the following performers:

Afrika Bambaataa.
Big Youth.
Bob Dylan.
Bob Geldof.
Bobby Womack.
Bonnie Raitt.
Bono.
Bruce Springsteen.
Clarence Clemons.
Darlene Love.
David Ruffin.
Duke Bootee.
Eddie Kendrick.
George Clinton.
Gil Scott-Heron.
Grandmaster Melle Mel.
Hall and Oates.
Herbie Hancock.
Jackson Browne.
Jimmy Cliff.
Joey Ramone.
Kashif.
Keith Richards.
Kurtis Blow.
Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Lou Reed.
Malopoets.
Michael Monroe.
Miles Davis.
Nona Hendryx.
Pat Benatar.
Pete Townshend.
Peter Gabriel.
Peter Garrett.
Peter Wolf.
Ray Barretto.
Ringo Starr.
Ron Carter.
Ron Wood.
Ruben Blades.
Run-DMC.
Scorpio.
Shankar.
Sonny Okosuns.
Stanley Jordon.
Steven Van Zandt Little Steven.
Stiv Bator.
The Fat Boys.
Tina B.
Tony Williams.
Via Afrika.
Will Downing.
Zak Starkey.

Today Sun City is famous for the Sun City Resort hotel hosting in South Africa the Nedbank Golf Challenge previously known as the Million Dollar Challenge and the Miss South Africa beauty pageant.

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