Ntando sings his way into the land reform debate
Afro-pop star releases new song Umhlaba Wam
Afro-pop musician Ntando Bangani is well known for his wedding anthems but he has decided to wade into politics to recapture his audience.
His new song, Umhlaba Wam, capitalises on the raging debate about land expropriation without compensation and speaks about returning land to its rightful owners.
The Dali Wam hitmaker said he was not only about entertaining his fans through love songs and could thus not ignore the issue of land.
“All I am saying in the song is that I want my belongings [brought] back to me. The government should not be quiet about this [land] issue because people will get annoyed and take it by force.”
Ntando said the song was inspired by his own experiences and told of how he discovered the policies of separating races when he used to travel regularly with his mother by train between Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.
“When we stopped to eat, I realised that no white people around us were also eating from lunch boxes – they went into a restaurant.” When he asked why that was the case he learnt about apartheid and how blacks were dispossessed of their land.
Umhlaba Wam is part of last year’s 12track album Mayibuye, but the single was only released a month ago.
Ntando said he dreams of owning a piece of land in the Eastern Cape’s tranquil areas where he would gather livestock and have a beautiful garden “to wake up to every day”.
Ntando is one of many musicians capitalising on the long summer holidays with their latest releases.
These include Drive by DJ Black Coffee & David Guetta featuring Delilah Montagu; Banomoya by Prince KayBee featuring Busiswa & TNS, Shay’inumber by Malumz On Deck & Gino Brown featuring Mr Vince, Asambeni by DJ Maphorisa & Busiswa as well as Sponono Sam by Cassper Nyovest, among others.