Songfacts®:

• "Township Rebellion" refers to the townships in South Africa that rose up to oppose Apartheid, a system that openly discriminated against Black citizens, who made up the majority of the population but wasn't represented in government. It was a long fight led by Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress, but Apartheid was finally ended in 1991, a year before Rage Against The Machine released this song on their self-titled debut album.
  
  The song can be summed up in the line, "Freedom must be fundamental: In Johannesburg, or South Central." The South Africans had to fight for their rights, and Americans who are facing oppression will have to as well.
• Apartheid is one of several institutions the band rages against on their debut album. Others include corrupt police ("Killing In The Name") and a complacent media ("Bullet In The Head").
  
  The album took a year or so to find an audience, but by the time Rage released their next album, Evil Empire, in 1996, they had a legion of fans that propelled it to #1. The band members weren't bonded outside of music, though, and were often at odds. Lead singer Zack de la Rocha got so fed up, he quit in 2000. The remaining three members planned to replace him but instead formed an entirely new band with Chris Cornell called Audioslave. When that band broke up in 2007, RATM got back together and resumed touring. That lasted until 2011; they mustered more shows in 2022 before calling it quits, leaving a legacy of potent protest music that innovated musically by merging rock and hip-hop without using samples.