Township Rebellion by Rage Against the Machine

Album: Rage Against The Machine (1992)

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"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.

Comments: 6

Dog from SeattleBut there is a double meaning here. Those who persecuted Jesus were themselves too narrow minded to realize that he was their savior, so they killed him. They were focused on punishments, rules, their own righteousness, symbolized by the cross, a torture device, and therefore killed Jesus and all those purporting to be followers of Jesus for centuries.

And then the final refrain changes the pronoun from "their" and now says "shackle YOUR mind when YOU'RE left on the cross" so now your own mental shackles, your unconscious biases, your deeply unconscious prejudices, your blindness results in your own self destruction.
Luke from Manchester, Uk"Shackle their minds when they're left on the cross"
Religion makes people's minds close.
Marc from Rockanje, Netherlands@Eric, "shackle their minds" means something like trap their minds, I don't know what Zack means with "when they're are left on the cross".

"when ignorance reigns, life is lost" means that when people get to ignorant some people will die.

Great song, I'm listening it right now.
Eric from San Francisco, Cawhat does he mean "Shackle their minds when they're left on the cross. When ignorance reigns, life is lost"
Nick from , ScotlandI really like the fatness of the main riff
John Smith from Southington, CtI like Zack's big yell. That was pretty weird though.

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