Singing and shouting out the good local news

Trust Shout SA to kick off the feel-good month of September (hello, Spring!) with news to make us smile: They've teamed up with BBDO South Africa to release a music track that's aimed at raising funds for building libraries around the country, with three having been built so far. Click here for more about this.

Previously, Shout's efforts had been with criminal rehabilitation and police support, such as in providing GPSes for better response times, but now they want to target the source - the children, as they feel education is key to turning around the country's entire outlook and overseas media's perspective of what's really going on here.

One of the Shout libraries

They're by no means diminishing the importance of criminal rehabilitation and instilling confidence in the hearts of South Africans that the police are indeed their protectors and custodians of the law, though, just shifting focus.

I chatted with Mabalane to find out more about the Shout for a Safer South Africa campaign in general and their latest offering in specific, using music to make SA a better place...

1. Tell us more about the Shout for a Safer South Africa campaign and how it came about.

Mabalane: In 2007, after the tragic death of Lucky Dube, which made it onto international news, Danny was quite touched and embarrassed that we are in the world news for all the wrong reasons. He called me up and said that as a music community we needed to do something highlighting the social ill that is crime. At the time, I was working on a song, Shout, for my 2007 album. He came into studio and suggested that we turn the song into an anthem. We decided to call all our industry friends to use what we know best- music, to galvanise the community to say that we are standing against the social ills and that we want to make a difference.

2. Let's talk about the decision to launch the new song on 1 September?

Mabalane: It is Spring Day, which symbolises change and new beginnings. The new song is very light-hearted, positive and talks about wanting South Africans to smile at one another. Even our new logo has a smiley face sun in it, so we are capitalising on the new season and, most importantly, on the current atmosphere of this country. We need a lift, from all angles. Be it the Springboks in the World Cup this year, the Shout foundation or Bafana Bafana, we need motivation from wherever we can find it.

3. That's for sure. How were artists like J'Something of MiCasa, Hugh Masakela, and Tamara Dey brought on board and what's the impact of big local names like these on the resulting campaign?

Mabalane: J Something was one of the very first people we got in touch with and we discussed with him that we were doing a third song that needed to be local. The first two were international songs. With this third one, because of the influence of our Facebook fans, people were always suggesting that we do something local. We reached out to various writers locally, and J Something was one of the guys that said, "I'll do it". J wrote the song with myself and Danny. Micasa as a whole played an integral part in the creation of the song. Bra Hugh is a big supporter of ours. He was featured in the second song. They are all big supporters. These are people who believed in what we do from day one, so picking up the phone and reaching out to them again wasn't a hard thing to do.

Danny K taking a selfie

With a profile comes the opportunity to amplify a message. Being the creative space, when it came time to think of a way to communicate a message, two things came to mind - music and the collective power of amplification. Getting 40 of 50 biggest names in the country to deliver that message. When you add those two together, the collaboration and the music, it really gets people's attention. It's been a tried and tested formula for us. We have seen it succeed. Shout will always combine those two elements when communicating our messaging.

4. OK then, let's talk about how music plays a role in building a better -safer, smarter - future?

Mabalane: Music has played such a pivotal role in this country's history. You look at the old dispensation and how the likes of Brenda Fassie, Chicco, Bra Hugh and Mam' Miriam Makeba used music to really fight social ills. Just because we are in a new dispensation, a democratic one, there are still social ills and we are using what they used - music. You ask if music can change South Africa, my answer is a big fat YES! Music is such an influential medium, people love music and what better way to get a message across through a hit song like Smile?

5. Tell us why proceeds are going towards children/education in the form of libraries this time around...

Mabalane: When we began, we just wanted to be active citizens and make a difference. We were tackling a massive problem of crime in our country and we had a bit of a shot gun approach to dealing with the problem. We were giving money to children rehabilitation and police widow and orphans funds, fixing up police stations and we didn't know what the best use of our time, efforts and money were. We realised that for sustainability and long term impact, if we weren't dealing with the root, we weren't going to be very successful. The root of all of this for us is educating our children and providing them with the tools that they need to have better lives. We have put these library's strategically in primary schools because it's an age where the trajectory of your life can go in a number of different directions.

6. Lastly, do you feel enough emphasis is given to NPOs locally?

Mabalane: I think there's so many people doing fantastic work in this country and their motive really comes from a good place. Different people in different spheres and sectors of this country really see a need where they are at. I have seen people, from their own pockets, start these amazing things to make a difference.

Click on this link to view the official presentation as well as find out how you can download it and make your R20 donation towards building more libraries.