Kelly Khumalo on Ngathwala Ngaye

IT is past time South Africans dumped Western notions and stories when celebrating love and start embracing our own rich culture, songstress Kelly Khumalo declares.

The musician, who recently shattered a major milestone when her single Empini reached gold, was speaking about her song Ngwathwala ngaye, which was released last week.

Coming out when Valentine’s Day is proving a much-needed — if superficial — distraction from the unrelenting stress of Covid-19, Khumalo’s song touches on the mythology of casting a spell, and tells a story of a woman who is so mesmerised by her romantic interest that she cannot see beyond her existence without him.

“This song was inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but with an African interpretation since I’m a proud African woman raised in KZN. My intention was to represent our own love stories as Africans. I am actually saying, ‘I’m so enamoured by you that it seems you cast a spell on me — I love you so much that I cannot see beyond you,” Khumalo said.

“My intent is to take us back to the authenticity of love, to take us back to a time where love was pure and selfless and people understood what it was to love each other,” she said.

Khumalo believes nowadays relationships can be all about self-preservation, with people reluctant to let it all hang out for fear of disappointment.

“The fear of hurt keeps us from real love because of what we’ve been through in our pasts,” she said. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far, and the 36-year old says she’s can’t wait for the release of its accompanying video, which came out on Sunday.

“I am very excited about that! It was shot last week, but we had been brainstorming the concept since last October. I can’t wait!”

Declining to offer no more than a tiny titbit, she would only say with a laugh: “You get to see me playing with gorgeous boys! There is a handsome male model, who is my love interest in the video”.

In honour of Valentine’s, Kelly listed her favourite African love songs:

Nomvula by Nathi

Intoyami by Ringo Madlingozi Emlanjeni by Mafikizolo Ndiphendule by Caiphus Letta Mbulu

Inkanyezi by Mondli Ngcobo. Sowetan.