‘The future of African music lies in its indigenous past’
TAKE a musical journey through the indigenous soundscape of southern Africa with Mpho Molikeng’s Of Bows and People at Straight No Chaser in Buitenkant Street on December 12 at 8pm.
The Lesotho-born musician has spent several years finding and learning to play southern African indigenous musical instruments, like flutes, whistles, horns, bows, drums, shakers, hand-clappers, ankle-rattles, wind-stringed, mbiras and marimbas.
He has come to the conclusion that the future of African music lies in its indigenous music.
Molikeng – a musician, actor, curator, poet, painter and storyteller – has dedicated the past 12 years to not only learning about indigenous instruments, but also teaching others about them in Africa and Europe.
For this tour, in association with Concerts SA, Molikeng is putting one family of instruments under the microscope – bows.
He will explore their nuances, ethnicity and their harmonious distinction in a collaborative set-up. The performances will feature both mouth resonated and tin/gourd resonated bows.
Some of the instruments he will play are umakhoyane, umakhweyane, uhadi, thomo, dende, ughubhu, umrhubhe, mokhope, utiyane, umqangala, lekope, lugube and the mamokhorong.
Molikeng’s tour will see him visit Bloemfontein, Durban, Venda, Cape Town, as well as Maseru in Lesotho, Mbabane in Swaziland and Maputo in Mozambique.
In each city he will collaborate with musicians and groups who have been masters of their instruments for many years.
In Venda he will perform with Richard Mtumbateka Matsharaga; in Mbabane with two umakhweyane players assigned by Swaziland Association for Traditional Musicians; in Maputo with duo Spirit Indigenous; in Bloemfontein with gumboot dancers and Mabi Thobejane; in Maseru with praise poet Meja; in Durban with Gog’ Bavikile Ngema, and in Cape Town with the Queen of Xhosa Music, Madosini.
“Indigenous music should be made relevant to today, in the ever changing world full of zillion sampled and computed genres of music, in so doing younger generations would start picking up indigenous instruments,” says Molikeng.
“Second, it should be given the same platform afforded to international and pop stars in our own backyard before selling them international. Lastly, collaborations across different cultures and gender should be promoted, to do away with tribalism and/or one-wo/man instruments, but still keep their identity.”
Of Bows and People is supported by Toms, the Alliance Française of Southern Africa and the Music Mobility Fund, a funding mechanism administered by Concerts SA. Joint South African and Norwegian initiative, Concerts SA, aims to support live music in South Africa by finding and implementing ways to create a vibrant and viable live music circuit.