Song Analysis: The Nelson Mandela Bridge

The Nelson Mandela Bridge was officially opened on 20 July 2003 by Nelson Mandela, himself. (Anon., n.d.) It was created and named in his honour as the country’s first democratically elected president. The bride is a solid but lightweight structure that is 284km long and asymmetrically built with the south pylon being 27m high and the north pylon being 44m high. It is made up of construction steel and concrete for extra support but also to remain lightweight.

It was built to create a sense of security for the people living in the area who travel from place to place either on foot, by bicycle or car. There are two lanes accommodating traffic in either direction as well as lanes for pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge unites some of the trendiest

The song is by AKA with a feature of KO. The closing off of the bridge created great hype for the musician, but did not live up to the standards of the bridge or honour its message and symbolism. In AKA’s verses he does nothing but talk about money, fame and girls. This has nothing to do with the message of freedom and unity. This is much rather the opposite, creating a divide in class and status. The title of the song implies that he has ownership and control over the city of Johannesburg thus becoming an oppressor which the bridge defies. His counterpart KO, however made some sort of sense since in his lyrics he addresses issues faced by the average South African in day to day life and how things get better and can be overcome. This performance using the Nelson Mandela bridge is an example of how the message of the bridge can be distorted and interpreted vainly thus abusing its power. It also shows how the youth have decided to utilise this freedom in a bad way such as drinking alcohol and getting involved in narcotics, but still shows the progression of the South African in the displaying of luxury items such as cars, brand name clothes and jewellery. (TheJuice, 2014)

Another example of performance using the bridge is was a social performance in 2015 where a group of people met at The Nelson Mandela Bridge in support of #ZumaMustFall. These people met in order to try and send a message to the government that they were dissatisfied with the direction in which the country is going. People wanted to make it evident that corruption will not be tolerated and that it needs to come to an end. Meeting and marching over the bridge would then threaten this Rainbow Nation and new found unity in order to get the point across. (Anon.,