SA music to honour Mandela
Revisiting a South African 80s classic straight out of the townships
This month World Beat joins the international celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist and visionary leader. Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, and passed away on Dec 5, 2013, having served 27 years in prison for his resistance to the racist apartheid system then operating in South Africa.
Mandela also cofounded the African National Congress party, and following his release in 1990, was elected in 1994 as the country’s first black head of state; he was the first president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election.
The campaign to release Mandela from prison became a global cause, with activities and fund-raising events held in many countries. Songs were written to support the cause, such as the catchy Free Nelson Mandela, written by Jerry Dammers and performed by the band The Special A.K.A., and local favourites like Black President by Brenda Fassie and Asimbonanga by Johnny Clegg and Savuka (you can see a moving version of this song on YouTube with an appearance by Mandela onstage during the performance).
So, to celebrate Mandela’s life and political legacy, here is a brief tour of some of the great music produced in South Africa. The country’s national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica, one of my favourite national anthems, was written in 1897, and the country’s first recordings were made in 1912. South African music was among the first to be recorded, and the country has the oldest recording industry in Africa, with some of the continent’s largest record companies, like the famous Gallo label. Moreover, South African musicians have always had a strong connection with African-American musicians, right from the early days of marabi (a jazz-influenced local style originally played on pianos and pebble-filled cans) to the current-day “street styles” like kwaito.
And it should be remembered that South Africa is home to many different ethnic groups — Mandela was a Xhosa — each of which has its own musical traditions. As a result, we get early Zulu guitarists in both South Africa and
South African music was among the first to be recorded, and the country has the oldest recording industry in Africa
what is now Zimbabwe, experimenting with guitars, creating, as Johnny Clegg once told me, a new sound which came from “Africanising” the guitar.
Religious music also has a long history in South Africa, and the local gospel style developed into an a capella tour-de-force called mbube, which was catapulted to global fame when Paul Simon used the mbube group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The style led to hits in the US like The Weavers’ Womoweh (1951), based on Soloman Linda’s song Mbube ( The Lion).
One of the first popular styles to emerge was pennywhistle jive (later called kwela), which focused on a three-holed flute. This instrument was common among black cattle-herders and quickly became popular in the townships. At the same time, a lively jazz scene developed in Johannesburg, with jazz musicians playing bebop-influenced jazz — think of the legendary Jazz Epistles with trumpeter Hugh Masakela (who recently passed away), saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (then known as Dollar Brand), and The Blue Notes, led by pianist Chris McGregor.
The increasing censorship and restriction of movement placed upon black South Africans in the early 60s led to a mass exodus of musicians such as Masekela, Miriam Makeba and many others. The move did have a positive impact, in that these musicians were able to showcase their music and, in the case of Makeba ( Pata Pata) and Masekela ( Grazing In The Grass), they also had charting hit singles and albums in the West.
But not everyone could leave South Africa, especially those who played “township jive” or, as it became known, mbaqanga, which is the name of a dumpling but which really implies that it is “home-made”. This was originally a saxled sound but additional elements were added by guitarist Marks Makwane and bassist Joseph Makwela; these two musicians, along with the producer, rhythm guitarist Vivian Ngubane and saxophonist West Nkosi, worked in a Gallo house band, The Makhona Tsohle Band, along with legendary singers like Simon Mahlathini Nakabinde and the female backing singers The Mahotella Queens. I was first hooked by a compilation of South African mbaqanga by Trevor Herman on Earthworks, The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto in the early 1980s, which prefigured the emergence on international stages of Mahlathini and his crew (they had to wait until the mid-1980s before they could show everyone around the world their incredible unique sound).
As mbaqanga artists got older, younger mbaqanga artists turned to US soul and funk to perk up the genre, led by The Soul Brothers, then in the late 1980s and early 1990s, younger musicians created a new popular hybrid called mapantsula and then kwaito, with the late Brenda Fassie becoming perhaps the most popular singer of the 1990s. There are many other styles of music in the country, from rock to pop and many still-vibrant folk styles but I find myself returning to that indestructible beat from the townships — mbaqanga — and the thrilling voice of baritone Mahlathini, whose only competitors for best deep voice in popular music are Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Sleepy La Boef.
I’ll be paying tribute to Nelson Mandela and South African music at my next DJ night on Global Vibes at Studio Lam on Aug 16.
Finally, I was at Studio Lam last week to see the local band Baby Arabia make their debut on Sukhumvit 51. The band played two fascinating sets of Thai and Malay pop songs, some pleng luk thung, gambus, dangdut and orkes Melayu. I wrote about them a few years back and am happy to report that the band is doing well and has just returned from a short tour to Japan. If you get a chance, you should see this band, which plays music that is not well known outside of Thai-Muslim communities. A band well worth looking out for.