Observer Online presents the second story in ‘Jimmy Cliff: Stories Of A Bongo Man’, in tribute to the reggae legend who died on November 24 at age 81. This seven-part series looks at different aspects of the singer-songwriter’s life.

Because of its official policy of racial segregation (Apartheid), South Africa was a pariah state since the early 1970s when the United Nations (UN) declared that system a crime against humanity. Many entertainers, sports personalities and business people who visited there were blacklisted by the UN.

Jimmy Cliff, a black superstar, defied that stigma by becoming the first Jamaican reggae artiste to perform in South Africa. He did three shows there in May 1980.

Cliff went to the renegade country three years after firebrand activist Steve Biko was killed in police custody. Anti-Apartheid hero, Nelson Mandela, was in his 18th year of imprisonment on Robben Island.

He performed in Soweto, Durban and Cape Town, playing to enthusiastic audiences. The biggest show was in Soweto, the impoverished township which was a flashpoint for the anti-Apartheid struggle.

Copeland Forbes, Cliff’s road manager on the two-week trip, told Observer Online that there was apprehension in the singer’s camp after he was approached by a group of black South African promoters to perform in their country.

“It was exciting for us, since most of us had never been to Africa. But we also knew about Apartheid and that people who went to South Africa were banned,” Forbes recalled.

Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Elton John, Dolly Parton, The Beach Boys, Kenny Rogers, Queen, Goldie Hawn and Brook Benton were some of the high-profile artistes who performed in South Africa. They were placed on a list compiled by the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid.

Cliff had been a superstar since the early 1970s through his starring role in the movie The Harder They Come. He had visited Africa several times and performed in Nigeria.

Forbes says Cliff was hugely popular in South Africa. His cover of Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry was an anthem there, while his I Am The Living album was also popular.

The first show in Soweto was by far the largest. It attracted over 100,000 fans of all races who gave Cliff a rapturous welcome.

“It was a moving sea of human beings… black, white, Indians. Everybody was shouting ‘Jimmy! Jimmy!” said Forbes. “There was also a lot of security with dogs.”

Though they had suitable accommodations, Cliff and his Oneness band experienced South Africa’s rigid colour barriers.

“We went to the parks and stores and we saw signs marked ‘Whites only’ or ‘Blacks and Coloured,” Forbes remembered.

During a break from shows, Cliff and his band went to Table Mountain, a scenic location in Cape Town overlooking Robben Island. They played bongo drums for most of the day in tribute to Mandela, a founding member of the African National Congress who had been imprisoned since 1962 for his fight against Apartheid.

Forbes disclosed that Cliff was blacklisted briefly for his South African trip. There had been opposition to his visit by some militant blacks, but he believes the general response among the indigenous population was positive.

“A Zulu warrior told me that it was Jimmy’s music that soothed him in tough times. To a lot of black people, we were like saviours,” said Forbes.

Nelson Mandela was freed from prison in 1990 after 27 years. He was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994, the same year Apartheid ended. Mandela died in December 2013 at age 95.

Five years after visiting South Africa, Jimmy Cliff and Big Youth joined the all-star Artists Against Apartheid on the song, Sun City, which called on entertainers to boycott that resort, located in the country’s north-west region.