Mirissa Neff’s new documentary This Is National Wake tells the story of a revolutionary punk band that emerged during a time of intense racism and oppression
National Wake, reflecting on making music in apartheid-era South Africa.We lived a life in opposition to government policy. The music was meant to be protest music. It was ‘fuck you’ music.”
National Wake had a short but incendiary existence, between 1978 and 1982, playing a mix of punk, funk and reggae, driven by rhythms that flitted between choppy ska and African grooves. “Shake your arse music,” as Kadey describes it. They released a self-titled album in 1981, which only sold in the hundreds and was soon withdrawn, with Kadey believing government and police put pressure on the record label and effectively wiped the album out. Police harassment grew intense and inescapable. They lived together in a house where they were visited up to three times a day by police, looking for any excuse to harass or arrest them.