It's a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack
You taught me all I know and I'll never look back
It's a very strange world and I thank you, Master Jack

You took a coloured ribbon from out of the sky
And taught me how to use it as the years went by
To tie up all your problems and make them look neat
And then to sell them to the people in the street

I saw right through the way you started teachin' me now
So someday soon you could get to use me somehow
I thank you very much and know you've been very kind
But I'd better move along before you change my mind

You taught me all the things the way you'd like them to be
But I'd like to see if other people agree
It's all very interesting the way you disguise
But I'd like to see the world through my own eyes

It's a strange, strange world we live in, Master Jack
No hard feelings if I never come back
You're a very strange man and I thank you, Master Jack
You're a very strange man, aren't you, Master Jack?

  ‘Master Jack’ was song recorded by Cape Town combo Four Jacks and a Jill. Was a Top Twenty international hit in 1968. Has this rolling, almost Hawaiian rhythm, similar to that used by the Ramones – which I find hugely satisfying; almost hypnotic. Is why I had it stuck in my head on a never-ending loop to get me out doing this random research. That the band, especially the singer Glenys Lynne, were superstars in South Africa – the first to grow long hair and tour America, according to Wikipedia.
  As an indolent thirteen-year-old not registering words I assumed this song was all about puberty; that itchy angst, disillusionment, the alienation they hoped would appeal to rebellious youth. Moving on, off to the city, with cash to buy records. Subtle hints of paedophilia?
  Various sources explain the reference to Master Jack as Great Britain; Old Blighty, the Motherland, etc. and that the ‘never look back’ is about throwing off colonial shackles; moving into a brave new world – HOWEVER, when you listen closely, the message is not quite so benign. They are actually saying; STOP moaning about Apartheid; let us get on with our own system of ruling ourselves. We want to be free: to use native Africans as virtual slave labour; to live in segregated communities; to criminalise interracial sex thereby keeping our Aryan bloodline pristine pure; by implementing a racially partitioned social program – without interference from you old-fashioned fogies.
  The ‘coloured ribbon’ line refers to a policy of integration and assimilation – as prescribed by the British governmental advisors. The other lyrics are vapid recitations of justifications of their fascist credo. ‘I’d like to see the world through my own eyes’. Like sulking teenagers.
  The word ‘apartheid’ means ‘apartness’ and describes a political administrative system constitutionalised in 1948 as a legitimisation of the racial segregation which had existed in South Africa since the Dutch Free Burghers settled on the fertile plains around the Cape of Good Hope in the Sixteenth Century. The program of ‘separate development’ affected every aspect of life in South Africa; although not too many whites complained – at the time. Hendrick Verwoerd the nominal ‘architect of apartheid’ described it as a ‘policy of good neighbourliness.’ A comment offering enough reason to stab him in the throat never mind his ruining tens of millions of people’s lives for fifty-odd years. They’d have been better off listening to good old Master Jack in the first place!

  The header image is aftermath of the Sharpeville Massacre 1960 when the South African Police fired upon a demonstration protesting the pass laws restricting black workers’ movements in towns. 69 people died and 180 were injured.