Hawk - Africa She Too Can Cry 1972

The mighty Hawk's second album, recorded in the UK and originally released by Charisma Records in 1973. This officially sanctioned release includes all the original vinyl tracks, 2 songs from the Live And Well album plus some rare gems Orang Outang, Kalahari Dry, and Mumbo Jumbo. Digitally remastered Africa, She Too Can Cry is a must for all connoisseurs of Afro progressive rock. The year was 1973 and in South Africa, the stranglehold of apartheid and the oppression of its opponents is increasing all the time, the noose growing ever tighter. These are dark and dangerous times and the watershed 1976 Soweto student uprising - which began a chain of events that would ultimately lead to the collapse of apartheid and the birth of democracy in South Africa – is still three years away. These were strange and scary times, when the law forbade marriages across the colour bar, legislation enforced the separation of the different races – and having friends of different races could land you in trouble with the authorities. It was also a time of a huge surge in original local music, an era when South Africa produced some of its finest bands. And leading the charge was Hawk, who going against the trend, turned their backs on the music coming out of Europe and America and turned to their African musical roots. Buoyed by the success of their first album, African Day – a thinly disguised commentary of South Africa and its insane politics - in 1971, followed by the seminal Africa She Too Can Cry, in 1972, Hawk had already established itself as one of the country's premier rock outfits. Explains Braam Malherbe, a member of the original Hawk line-up: "It (African Day) was political, you know. I mean there's the elephant destroying things left, right and centre – driving people from their land. We were making a huge comparison – if anyone had analysed the words then, they would have realised what we were all about." Like its predecessor, Africa She Too Can Cry, was a concept album, a social commentary on the madness that was South Africa in the 1970s. "Hawk was a concept band and the album Africa She Too Can Cry, came at the right time, it was meant to be," say Dave Ornellas, former lead vocalist and front man for Hawk, the owner one of the definitive rock voices of his era. It tells the story of a young African man, Kakawa and his village and the people who lived in it. "It is a sad story of how the tribe was torn apart," explains Ornellas, remembering the lyrics that captured the mood of the album. The album, not counting this latest reincarnation, has been released three times before, with three different track listings, first in 1972, then again in 1973 – with a slightly different track listing and credited to Joburg Hawk (redone in South Africa for European release). The final release, until now, was around 1998 as a cheap bootleg CD on Japan's Never Land Label.

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