Want to hear a funny (success) story?
Musician Musa Masajar’s main source of income took a knock when South Africa plunged into lockdown last year. But it also gave him time to work on another passion that now entertains thousands. By
The Covid-19 lockdown that destabilised Musa Masajar’s music career, his main source of income, pushed him to focus on his other passion, animation. “My music was doing great and I’d have performances, like, every month. I have my music videos on TV and I have a very good fan base,” says the Afropop singer and producer.
The initial strict lockdown that President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced in March last year meant the 32-year-old from Ngodini in Mpumalanga couldn’t perform and forced him to use a skill he had previously ignored.
“I made a 30-second animation video [comedy skit] of a Swati-speaking character called Mhlonishwa. I uploaded it on WhatsApp Status, people loved the video and my circle of contacts kept on sharing it with me. I did not tell them I [was] the one who created it,” Masajar says, adding that when he created another one, it “became even more popular than the first one”.
Masajar didn’t go to school to learn animation. “Everything I know, I got from YouTube and a little bit of research.”
Given the warm reception his initial animations got, he created Simelane in June. This character speaks Fanakalo, a lingua franca said to have originated within European-African contact in the historical setting of colonisation. This is to some degree still used by black labourers, mainly in the mining industries in South Africa and other African countries.
“Simelane [has] become one of the biggest characters. He draws the most attention when we attend [live] shows,” says 31-yearold Bheki Mathebula, who plays the character of Simelane.
They had more than 30,000 followers on Facebook within a week of creating social media pages. “I then took it seriously and even stopped dating,” he says jokingly.
Since then, they have added two more characters: Mgalafawa and Ngobe. The former is played by 26-year-old Future Samukelo Mngomana. Mgalafawa seemingly draws inspiration from Cebolenkosi Mthembu, who plays favourite cop Nyawo in the television drama Uzalo.
Ngobe is played by Masajar’s 27-year-old younger brother, Mthombisi Mlombo. This always tipsy character has become increasingly loved, too. “We know that in our set of characters there are a lot of alcohol lovers that were left out and we wanted someone who wouldn’t be pretentious,” explains Masajar. “I really like alcohol and it is nice acting as a drunk person. And besides, water does not do justice,” Mlombo says coyly.
Making money from his passion
Part of the reason why his Siswati cartoons have received so much attention, says Masajar, is because “a lot of animations are in isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sepedi and ... other languages. I wanted to be unique and to be the first, although I am not a perfect Swati speaker...”
Their Facebook page now has more than 600,000 followers, and they have an overwhelming number of subscriptions on YouTube. “We can say now that this is a form of employment. We’ve managed to survive through lockdown and people come to advertise their businesses,” Masajar says. “When we were doing this thing we never ever thought of it as a business, until someone said, ‘Guys, I can see you have a lot of followers and can you say something about my business? I will pay you.’”
Even though they make money from this, their families still don’t view it as employment. “Our parents think we are mad, and they never take us seriously. [One] day I gave my mom some money to treat herself and she asked me where I got money. I said cartoons. She was baffled,” Masajar says.
They’ve received a number of requests to perform gigs, but have kept them to a minimum to stay focused on creating content for their online audience. Government officials have also come on board.
“When we got calls from the government that they wanted to advertise with us, we were excited, and this showed us that our work is being valued… We ... enjoyed working with the government because it gives our work value and legitimacy,” says Masajar. Every fortnight, some of their animations are aired on Ligwalagwala FM, a public broadcasting radio station in Mbombela.
Because of this recognition, they say, some fans and potential advertisers assume they’re wealthy. The consequence of them not “looking the part” has led to clients wanting to pay less because they didn’t think they deserved a higher rate.
Companionship during adversity
Their audience do not know their actual identities, as they wear their characters’ masks when they perform their skits. Some of SA’s big celebrities have contacted them to acknowledge their craft. “This thing is comedy. Our sole mandate is just to make people happy and entertain them,” says Mathebula.
But for some fans, this has been more than comedy. It has been a tonic and a form of companionship during a time of adversity.
“My son is a child with special needs and suffers from chronic disease: heart failure, lung disease and loss of hearing… One day he was sitting in his bedroom and I heard him laughing and I wondered what he was laughing at. He told me that he’s amused by Mhlonishwa, Simelane and Mgalafawa. Then one day I asked to see what he was talking about. Yoh! I laughed so hard. I would like to encourage you guys to keep doing an amazing job of entertaining the nation… Now I make sure that he has data so that I can hear his voice and laughter,” commented one grateful mother on Facebook.
We can now say that this is a form of employment. We’ve managed to survive through lockdown and people come to advertise their businesses
THIS ARTICLE WAS fiRST PUBLISHED ON NEW Frame.