Heritage Day, Heritage Month ... and Real Heritage
Despite having performed on stages throughout the world, the traditional musicians of the Ngqoko Cultural Group are virtually unknown in their own backyard, the Eastern Cape, writes Lulamile Feni
One of SA’s national treasures, the Ngqoko Cultural Group, harness the extraordinary depth of a centuries-old musical art form, astonishing musical scales and a unique, highly-developed form of overtone singing, to deliver traditional Xhosa music performances that enthral audiences all over the world. The performers in the group include, from left, Nomthandazo Ntese, Nozamile Zenani, Notest Ngozi, Nogcinile Yekani, Nofirst Tandiwe Lungisa and Nokhaya Mvotyo.
Considered one of SA’s national treasures, the performers of the Ngqoko Cultural Group harness the richness and extraordinary depth of a centuries-old musical art form, astonishing musical scales and rich harmonies and a unique, highly developed form of overtone singing, to deliver traditional Xhosa music performances that enthral audiences all over the world.
Established in 1979 in the rural hinterlands of Cacadu (formerly Lady Frere) the allfemale group has performed in many European countries.
Their music is characterised by a mixture of umngqokolo, umngqokolo ngomnqangi and umtshotsho.
The group is known for playing traditional music using traditional instruments such as the uhadi — an arc of wood held taut with a string which uses a gourd as a resonator, and umrhube, the same without a gourd, as well as the isitolotolo inkinge, a type of mouth harp, and the flute.
While the number of their performances has decreased along with the size of the ensemble, as some members of the original 15-member group have died, the five remaining members are determined to keep their endangered music — an important aspect of Xhosa heritage — alive.
Today, Nofirst Tandiwe Lungisa, 75, — one of the three founding members (along with Nofirst Dywili and Nowayilethi Ntese), is the longest-serving member. Dywili and Ntese have died. Nokhaya Mvotyo, 78, is the oldest member of the group. She and Nogcinile Yekani, 71, have been members for 40 years. Nopasile Mvotyo, 72, and Nomthandazo Ntese, 49, joined in 1998.
More recently Nozamile Zenani, 70, Nosayinile Mvotyo, 71 and Weziwe Pangiso, 49, joined.
Lungisa, Mvotyo and Yekani, who either did not attend school or dropped out in Grade 2, said through their singing and world tours they have gained a rich education.
Says Lungisa: “We never imagine that as poor, uneducated rural women we would end up touring the world and performing in front of huge crowds of highly educated people like professors at Oxford University.
As patriots we refuse to have our indigenous music buried.
“Though we are not popular at home, we will be remembered as those women who, for more than four decades, made sacrifices to retain and promote indigenous African music at a time when Africans themselves had forsaken it for Eurocentric culture.”
However, there are no young people rushing to learn how to perform the complex rhythms in the group’s music. This unique form of expression is slowly dying out and the group fears that without more interest from higher education institutions, the government and music lovers, future generations will forget how to perform this art form.
Ngqoko’s largest fan base remains abroad. Locally only universities with strong music departments have shown interest in studying their music. They have performed with the now-celebrated Madosini Latozi Mpahleni, who has just been honoured with a doctoral degree from Rhodes University. Mqhekezweni-born Madosini is renowned for her bow-playing skills.
Musicologists Professor Dave Dargie and Professor Andrew Tracey have been instrumental in bringing indigenous Xhosa music groups such as Ngqoko into the spotlight.
In 1979 Dargie began investigating traditional music in the area around the Catholic Lumko Pastoral Institute in Cacadu. “The music in that area was of such striking interest that musicologists in SA began to take an interest in it as soon as I was able to make it known in academic circles. It was in this area that I discovered the first documented examples of overtone singing in traditional African music.
“In addition, the local music included the use of different musical bows, and features truly amazing usages of rhythm, as well as highly developed and sophisticated songs,” said Dargie.
In 1989 members of Ngqoko were invited to perform at the Autumn Festival in Paris, France to great success.
Among those who attended was Danielle Mitterand, wife of the French President Francois Mitterand. This was the year the singers decided to form the
Ngqoko Traditional Xhosa Music Ensemble.
Since that first visit to France in 1989, the group has performed in Geneva and Basel, Switzerland, throughout Germany, in London and in other cities in the UK. They have performed several times in the US, including New York, as well as Canada and the Middle East.
“There are usually 11 or 12 performers in the group,” Dargie said. “Some use traditional musical instruments. The majority of the group perform umngqokolo overtone singing [a type of singing in which the singer manipulates the resonances in the vocal tract to produce additional overtones above the fundamental note being sung].
“They also use percussion and friction drums. One member plays a concertina adjusted to perform traditional Xhosa scales and chords.
“The songs and dances range from diviners’ dance songs, umtshotsho boys’ and girls’ dance songs, dances usually performed at girls’ initiation rites as well as those from various other traditional dance gatherings,” he added.
Although the Ngqoko Group had performed in many countries, they speak only isiXhosa. Their manager, Tsolwana Mpayipeli, 63, travels with them, performs with them and acts as translator.
“It is thanks to Mpayipeli that the group has been able to travel to so many different countries and perform there successfully,” said Dargie, who was adjunct professor in the University of Fort Hare’s music department but now lives in Munich, Germany. “I have recorded them many times.”
The recordings are published by the International Library of Traditional Music in SA (Ilam) in Makhanda.
“Most of the original performers have passed away. I have been trying to encourage the survivors to teach young people their songs, but it is not easy because there are only five of the original group left and they are getting old.
They are Nofirst Lungisa, Nopasile Mvotyo, Nokhaya Mvotyo, Nogcinile Yekani and Nomthandazo Ntese. Dargie implored them “to not give up hope”.
“I did not establish the group. They became known because I studied their music, starting in 1979 when I was working for the Lumko Institute.
“I found such wonderful music there that people from Ngqoko and Sikhwankqeni were invited to perform at a conference at Rhodes University in 1981, and so they became known.
“The main founding member was Nofinishi Dywili, a master musician and important song leader in Ngqoko,” said Dargie.
In 2002 Dywili was posthumously honoured for her contribution to traditional forms of SA music with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the SA Arts & Culture Trust Awards.
Dargie added that he would love to see young people being taught their art. “There is a real danger that many wonderful songs and musical instruments such as uhadi and umrhubhe will disappear if nothing is done to encourage more interest,” he said.
Now over 80, Dargie said the group had honoured him with the name Mqwayito a few years ago, as a sign that he was getting on in life.
“But I am still working with their music, so that my recordings will be available to amaXhosa people in the future.”
Handing over the award to Dywili in October 2002, Professor Andrew Tracey, who was then director of Ilam, highlighted Dywili’s passion for sustaining traditional Xhosa music.
“She was outstanding in her own way, but also representative of many other outstanding, unsung women who can be found in every small community in SA — people who have the courage and the power to live their lives as they know they should be lived, and to influence others to do the same,” he said.
“They have made a tremendous impression. It’s not only their music, the polyphonic singing, the three types of bow they play, the umngqokolo overtone singing.
“It is also their presence, their dignity, their gaiety and their seriousness, the sure knowledge they give to an audience that they are part of an ancient tradition which means something to them, and something of this meaning comes across to every audience,” Tracey said.
Though we are not popular at home, we will be remembered as those women who, for more than four decades, made sacrifices to retain and promote indigenous African music at a time when Africans themselves had forsaken it for Eurocentric culture