I L I S O
ISSUE 01 04/20
We chat with winner of Standard Bank Young Artist Award (for Visual Arts) in 2020 We review Bongeziwe Mabandla's latest offering titled "iimini"
CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA
uMavusana EDITOR Small magazines: Whose wor(l)d is it, anyways? What words (do)?words of the marooned, the ruined, doomed, that loom the everywhere of civil society. words of the dead, decaying, deemed
Fill voids and avoids regurgitation of lifeless
decadent and self-mutilating. words do. words
tropes.words resist. words insist on life & rapture of
pump “life into an empty shell�.
rigid enclosures, instituted as normalcy. words unlock new, alternative, portals of becoming.words (must) speak, transgress. & bring the world to account- not its troubles, but the world that makes such those troubles possible.
VOIDTAPE
X
IIMINI REVIEW
#1
IIMINI: A FIDELITY TO UNITY Words Vusumzi Nkomo
frankly,
iimini by Bongeziwe Mabandla
romantic love, one is offered an
is a beautiful body of work, not
opportunity
experience
only because of his haunting &
another, to experience love
meditative, introspective voice,
and life with another, and to
the tenderness of his falsettos,
(experience) love in time. This,
but the way in which the songs
according
are carefully assembled:
In
love,
or
quite to
to
philosopher
French
Alain
Badiou’s
critique of modern love in
They
William Williamson’ short film,
knitted
is fundamentally opposed to
deliberately
modernist
carries the energy of the next
notions
of
the
are
linked,
together. leads
delicately A
song
to
and
individual. And of course I’m
song,
interested in this love, which
curatorial deliberateness. The
poet/writer Nikki Giovanni calls
songs
“a tremendous responsibility”,
another, like life, like our days,
and its relation to time: as two
iimini zethu. One song’s ending
people, ensconced in a world
is deployed as the other song’s
of their making, watching life,
beginning.
watching
happens,
explains that he “always wants
unfolds. I think this unfolding is
to have a sense of beginning
the base upon which the form
and an end in all my work.”
and
as
themes
life
of
iimini
explored by the artist.
strung
together
disappear
And
with
into
the
one
artist
are This brilliance doesn’t emerge
out of nowhere: in Umlilo, the
A fidelity to thematic unity is
last song ‘Ntembisweni’ drags
observed
us abruptly into an abyss, a
throughout the project. This
silence we never asked for and
forward
looking
it is unclear whether the sound
imaginative
neo-soul
will resurface, as singing or
sounds like a whole spliced
speech and save us from this
into
indefinite performative silence.
wanted the songs to tell a story
(Of course when a 9 minute
together
song is brought into an abrupt
picture. The songs are about
stop
expect
one theme and message even
something- even though in the
though they are different; they
iimini
needed to have a sense of
midway,
final
you
song
on
12
by
conjoining and
‘ndiyakuthanda (12.4.19 )’ the
oneness.”
singing
serenading
does
not
resurface
the
folk
and album parts.
also
Apart
artist
paint
“I a
from
the
vocals
on
except for drops of drizzling
guitar laced with electronic
rain and a gentle swishing of
beats, Bongeziwe draws us,
leaves). It is this unexpected
almost cinematically, into his
turn, or gesture if you may, that
world,
makes
usually at the tail end of each
Bongeziwe
interesting
artist.
On
an iimini
song
which by
way
he
constructs
of
creating
what we see is a clear vision,
delicate
with
sounds, speeches, nature, and
clear
aesthetic
thematic objectives.
and
iGwijo:
ambience
with
we get a sense of the buzzing streets as ‘ndanele’ fades faintly carrying the following tune, ‘zange’; horns in harmony with bucking dogs and passing cars, encapsulating the sounds and musics of the outside while ‘zange’ slowly grows into the full sound the song is known for. ‘masiziyekelele (14.11.16)’ carries the energy of and melody of ‘salanabani (13.8.18)’, the end of ‘ukwahlukana entry
into
(#027)
is
the
‘bambelela
kum
(4.6.18)’, the last few seconds of ‘bambelela kum (4.6.18)’ see Bongeziwe
harmonising
sorrowfully with chirping birds giving a ‘foresty’ effect, that leads us seamlessly to ‘isiphelo (#untitled)’. He tells me: “I always write music from an honest place and the first thing I do is first explain the message as though I’m
telling
something,
a
friend
writing
a
or
letter
about the situation. Writing music is like writing a book. You have to paint the situation for the listener and every word you use has to add to the description.”
"The call and response style of African music enables a dialogue between the lead singer and those who are following." LUKHANYO DIDEKA
2019
#2
BLESSING INTERVIEW
I PAINT WHAT I LIKE: A CONVERSATION WITH BLESSING NGOBENI
Despite a Antarctic thawing 36°C Cape Town blaze from Helios, Blessing, winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (for Visual
Arts)
composed
in
in
2020,
Marco's
seats African
Place, with a glass half-full of something
befitting
a
Friday
afternoon. Adorning his signature fingerless leather glove and wrists covered with a web of eccentric accessories, a grayish brown T and pants,
this
gentle
and
mild
mannered man, a Tzaneen-born painter,
dreamer,
and
“visual
dancer”, is soaking in the Mother City, leisurely, modestly, as if he’s not the creator of the captivating Replica Ever Sang, his latest 20piece solo exhibition showing at Everard Read, V&A.
Words Vusumzi Nkomo
"THE WORKS EXPLORE SEEMINGLY UNRELATED UNFILTERED NARRATIVES ETCHED IN THE BODIES OF FIGURES OF GROTESQUE FORM" Replica Ever Sang opened on
political regimes and show a
the 4th of March and the artist
disdain
kindly agreed to allow me to
portraying
the
will
pick his brains, and annoyingly
people
in
the
struggle
for
get him to decode all the CIA-
power
and
realisation
of
esque
deferred dreams.
encrypted
hieroglyphically
signs
power,
while of
the
in
This matters to Blessing, like all
some of his pieces. Apart from
the Black lives that matter to
the signs, the pieces are an
him.
impressive fusion of collage
dexterity, this chaos on canvas,
and
odd
paint,
expressively
inscribed
for
photographs retouched
Explored and
with
striking
disorientating
at
with
times, ambushing the senses,
acrylic paint. The works explore
strikes at the heart of the
seemingly unrelated unfiltered
troubles that haunt our world;
narratives etched in the bodies
images of famine, dogs’ fanged
of figures of grotesque form;
teeth, burning Black bodies, all
these bodies carry the post-
add to the rich visual and
colonial African reality in ways
conceptual landscape of the
that trouble narrow notions of
project
time-as-linear.
which is to say, references an
Through the imaginary, the
expansive palette of artistic
fantastic, the works wage an
visionaries which paved the
unflinching critique of
way for him.
which
draws
from,
Vusumzi Nkomo: In many of
VN: Throughout the works text
the pieces a certain inscription,
features
text,
inscribed
appears:
PWMAAA&J?
Please decode that for me.
quite
prominently,
with
paint
-
elsewhere as paper/print - to sort
Blessing Ngobeni: When my son was around 7/8 (years old). When we drive through the City (Joburg), we encounter people who ask for food and
of
augment/expand
meaning, but in the diptych ‘Through City Window I & II’ the text is scratched out, a kind of self-censorship. Can you speak more on that?
money, you know, at the robot.
BN: When you look at how we
At times you find out if you
carry
don’t have money or anything
ourselves,
there
to give to them they become
messages
we
angry at you. My son asked me
someone else’s ears, but it
so many times, “Daddy, why is
doesn’t make them practice
it that these people cannot
the
understand that you have us
scratching out I’m saying. “We
your
are
told you but these words are
responsible for? If you don’t
not getting through. As much
have it, you really don’t have it.
as we still have leadership,
I know you give when you have
though
but these people get angry all
positions
the time.” So it started from
contributed
that moment. So we decide to
contributions
create
Without
out. I’m protesting you know.
Money Are Always Angry and
So we must try by all means to
Jealous’. But it’s really not a
parade our ideas out there and
nice thing to say, so its best if
share them with those that are
it's coded then it becomes
in need of them. So it’s not
interesting.
censorship.
kids,
it:
that
‘People
you
dialogue
things
they it's
among are
send
we
those out
said.
are
in
because but are
to
By
those we our
scratched
VN: God I misread that! BN: (laughter) No! It’s about
Genocide and other horrible
how the Black voice, the voices
not
of the masses are not getting
physically, as a people. But all I
through to these people. So I’m
wanted
trying to explain that as strong
why we treated that way and
as these words are, somehow
think about us in our time and
they are going to waste.
how
VN: Juxtaposition is a salient
between that age and ours.
feature in the show. One such
But
juxtaposition is the constant
people who’ve managed to get
use of text as print, and/against
the ‘cheese’ and tend to treat
painted text. The ‘print text’ has
other Blacks the same way. Did
a reportage feel, an archive
we inherit this or we just
effect, quite authoritative, and
transformed by money and
the
very
lose ourselves. So I want to find
cinematic, has a subtitle effect.
ways of reading what they did
Can you tell me more about
to us.
that specific juxtaposition?
VN: The work boast of a wide
BN: I enjoyed bringing this sort
political
of history because those events
expressive
are relevant to our times. You
Would you or do you consider
can look at the Namibian
yourself a ‘visual activist’?
painted
text
is
genocides; its proof that we are weak,
spiritually
was
there there
to
understand
are are
and
similarities now
Black
vocabulary artistic
and lexicon.
I LIKE TO THINK OF MY WORK AS A “RESULT OF A MASTERPIECE”.
BN: Well I call myself a ‘Visual
BN: Actually I’ve referenced, in
Dancer’ (laughter). But that’s
different ways, Bra Dave (David
something I wouldn’t ignore
Koloane); he features in most
because these are things I
of my work. I love his dogs, the
witness, experience. I like to
way he was painting them. For
think of my work as a “result of
him, his dogs are more settled,
a masterpiece”. Like when two
more blurry. Mine are just dark,
cars
with fanged teeth. So with Bra
collide
and
suddenly
there’s change in life; there’s
Sam
death,
bound,
when I started working with
there’s shock. So that’s the
collages I did not know his
result of a masterpiece, works
work. I did not know anything
that speak in volumes without
about him, even Bra Dave.
being planned but people go
Even Picasso (Pablo). I mean, I
‘wow!’ when they view it.
came from a generation that
VN: The technique of painting
moved from prisoner to art and
over photographs, in a way that
when I was in prison I did not
alters
wheelchair
(Nhlengethwa),
well,
transforms
their
do art, I only did after my work,
something
that
which was consigned to this
could be read as a reference to
other gallery in 2008 and they
Ntate
said my work was stolen. So my
or
meaning,
Sam
Nhlengethwa,
whom you’ve cited as someone
collages
started
whose encounter with has had
period,
end
an impact in your career. Why
remember I spent the whole
was it important to make this
year without painting. At the
specific aesthetic choice?
beginning I would use found
of
from
that
2009.
I
boards instead of a canvas, I
when we went to the opening,
would use tiny collage there
he was there and talking too
and there.
much. I told him sh@%, “this is
But my work has a tendency of
Africa,
wanting to find its own path
history of Belgium, you said
without being compared to
Congo
other artists or movements. For
chopped our people”, and he
instance,
went silent.
they
say
I’m
a
Surrealist painter but the work is constantly trying to unchain itself
from
that
historic
movement. But the reason to transform images was because people
you is
remember yours
your
and
you
VN: Your figures have these sharp
pointed
edges,
for
example, the fingertips and feet.What
exactly
is
communicated by this use of
usually come and say “Hey, you
line? BN: I like the idea of becoming
used
It
a child. Unfortunately I’ll never
happened before with my first
be a child again (laughter). But
show when I was working with
it is interesting that we belong
Gallery MoMo in Joburg. There
in
was a Belgium guy who used
everything is exaggerated, our
to travel in Africa and take
past, our present. Hopefully our
photographs, so I used one of
future won’t be exaggerated
his pictures and I destroyed it,
hence we’re writing this history
but
it
right now. But I found that this
completely because I wanted
technique creates a certain
those effects on the photo. So
form, a certain shape. I love
my
I
did
photograph!”
not
destroy
a
generation
where
YOU MUST DISCOVER WHAT YOU LIKE IN THE WORK.
seeing
my
characters
in
makes you feel comfortable
different shapes. It’s about how
and uncomfortable when you
we move as humans, our paths
look at it and how do you pick
are not always straight. By
what you think you like and
creating those straight lines I’m
leave what you think you don’t
interested in the freedom of
like. You must discover what
moving around and moving
you like in the work. So I bring
the way we want, moving
various elements into my work;
straight, turning in the corner,
be they images of Namibian
and I must paint the way I
genocide, images of Congo
want
river, images of Sophiatown,
without
being
questioned.
Marikana,
VN: The work is visually and
feelings and treatment they
conceptually
applied to each and every
dense,
disorientating
and
overwhelming
the
viewer/reader, bringing across a
stream
unrelated
of
seemingly
and
incoherent
narratives at times. Why is it important for you to bombard the
viewer
with
these
narratives all at once? BN: I always tell people about ‘Beauty, Hate, the Ugly, the Brutal’ part of my work; what
African.
where
all
these
"I’m protesting you know. So we must try by all means to parade our ideas out there and share them with those that are in need of them." BLESSING NGOBENI 2020
JOBURG SELECTED REVIEW
#3
SAM NHLENGETHWA’S MEDITATIONS ON TIME AND SPACE, ‘SIGHTS & SOUNDS’ OF IT ALL. Text: Vusumzi Nkomo and Azola Dayile
November 2019 saw us one Joburg evening
at
the
Selected,
Goodman Nhlengethwa's
exposition
Gallery in Rosebank – our first reads an ode to a city as old as time – to witness the opening memory, as old as colonial of Sam Hlengethwa’s Joburg expansion,
and
the
Selected exhibition, on show nightmarish insatiable appetite from
12
October
to
9 for
African
gems.
Joburg
November. Upon arrival & entry Selected on display at the into the white, empty, taciturn Goodman Gallery, is a selection showroom – and thinking of its of works at the service of and histories of exclusion both for commitment to memory-ing, artist and audience – we did remembering: the people of not, however, feel a sense of and in Jozi, the architecture, mis-place.
The
three- and the colors, the textures, the
dimensionality and near-real music-sounds feel
of
Johannesburg
of
a
gigantic
downtown concrete jungle, the artist laid on
canvas eyes and treaded quietly in
hanging on the white walls, felt and around its maze-streets. familiar. Like we could, with relative ease, walk into The We were drawn to the works Kitchener (2019), find a seat at with no sense of movement,
the bar and ask for the usual, that as
we
sounds
habitually of
Louis
do.
are
The moving
not
occupied
subjects.
There’s
by a
Moholo stillness, a kind of tranquil
making all the better.
element, a calmness (save for a few that hint at the buzz and
Given the befitting title of ‘
roar that is synonymous with
THIS PICTORIAL DISRUPTION OF TIME (AND SPACE) TROUBLES LIBERAL NOTIONS OF PROGRESS
Jozi) that is quite striking. But we’d like to believe, Joburg we’re interested in them as Selected is a vignette of how much as they are deployed in present our past is, which is to contrast to those that carry a say,
how
entangled
is
the
different kind of movement: a present with the past. certain movement from the past into the future-present, a The work’s commitment to deracination from a previous memory,
remembering
the
time to the current time. This is past (mining the gems of the achieved
in
placement
the
of
careful Archive) becomes interesting
monochrome to read when it is read against
archival photographs in the Nhlengethwa’s
commitment
pieces. These black and white to archiving the present, so figures
are
placed
next
to that present narratives can be
present day objects (building retrieved in the future. This is and people) in a way that political in as much as it is disturbs conventional narrative artistic (though a separation of strategies.
This
pictorial the
two
disruption of time (and space) avoided). troubles
liberal
progress;
notions
what
development
look
Joburg
by
Africa,
and
and
of concerned
should
always
be
The
Timer
is
about
Joburg’s
does cultural sites/spaces and how like
in they continue to disappear,
extension, owing to the ‘contemporary’ Western colonial expansionist project
conceptions of life; how dead known as gentrification. are the Dead? How alive are Black people? It is obvious,
In the age of digital
manipulation of images and which is to say, paint the oversaturation of photographs background (and sometimes that look too-good to be true, foreground) Hlengethwa’s
on
the
canvas,
aesthetic giving the pieces a surreal
intervention will never get old: effect, thus inviting us to think deftly
applying
photographs
paint
on about the productive dialogue
magnifies between
meaning while simultaneously ‘fine beautifying
the
image.
photography
arts’,
an
and
experimental
This avant-garde-ism central to the
technique allows us to re- Black
radical
aesthetic
imagine the image, to think of tradition in general, and Jazz in and beyond the limitations of particular,
and
undermining
the photograph (to go where a any efforts to separate, or put photo won’t go, that is, at the differently,
to
think
of
excess of the meaning of the photography as antithetical or photograph) as a thing that incompatible with ‘fine arts’. should represent reality. This (re)imagining (upsetting
of
the
our
real The question of the archive
standard
knowledge of the objective In I Love Jozi, Park Station, and
concrete
real),
is
the J.S.E in Winter, The Marc (all
genius of the ‘mixed media on 2019), as well as Inspired by canvas’ pieces: the Romare Bearden and Ernest photographs of buildings have Cole (2018), the people/figures been
blown
up
and
deep painted by Tat’ Sam appear, or etched, pasted on a canvas, stand, next to monochrome and Tat’ Sam chose to re-do,
images that have been
borrowed from the ‘Archive’ (I
between
Love Jozi and The Marc feature
bodies
color photographs that look
both
like they were taken ‘recently’).
complex narratives. According
architecture in
as
Joburg objects
and
Selected, that
carry
to Nhlengethwa, “the buildings Here, the artist problematizes
become the persona here.” The
Cartesian logic and the notion
artist seems to suggest that the
of time as linear (and space as
stories that bodies tell and
fixed),
photo
carry, can be told and carried
materials as leitmotif, in his
by these buildings. And both,
imagination
the
the bodies and buildings, are
“contemporary” Johannesburg
both vulnerable to the violent
melting-pot;
colonising
using
archival of
preoccupied
whims
of
racial
only/mostly with the Black who
capitalism. The buildings “have
in the histories of the city has
their own stories and relate to
had
our history in various ways.”
to
occupy
designated times,
Therefore keeping the memory
carrying with them identifies
of these buildings, the artist
that proved ‘belonging’, even if
seems to suggest, is as equally
only for a few hours as mine
important
boys, newspaper men, kitchen
portraying/narrating the stories
girls or the homeless who
of the people. “When you look
today
for
at what photographers like
sidewalks/pavements as night-
David Goldblatt did in the past,
beds.
some of those structures no
spots
at
specified
opt
as
longer exist, but they’re on There is an interesting relation
record. It’s about memory,
more than just architecture”. The
absence
representation even
of of
though
oblivious
bodily
whiteness, we
to
aren’t
whiteness’
presence in other ways, is a curious
question.
Johannesburg come
to
as
have
is
the
know
consequent “discovery”
we
result by
of
white
a
capital
that catapulted migrant labour in Southern Africa. Park Station is key a factor, with disposable Black labour arriving daily in Joburg
having
been
ferried
long hours by bus or train. By bringing these monochrome photographs “present”
back
and
into
the
foregrounding
them as the main people in the
pieces
they
appear
in
speaks to a persistence on centering
Blackness
(and/or
Black people) and history as an incessant event.
"Lwimi lulephuza amadangatya Nkcubeko ibuthwa phantsi Kunkcenkceza isiXhosa" ZIZIKAZI SOFIKA 2020
#4
INK. SECTION
THE WITCH DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER
Mustapha unemployed
Jinadu self
is
an
ordained
Shaman living in Lagos City, receiving trance:
visions
through
spontaneous
transmissions in a spiritual cave projected
onto
pages/
expressly and directly with out modifications in syntax and artificial grammar; nothing is error
but
accidental.
everything
is
THE FRONT PASSENGER AND I SURVIVED.WITH A CRUSHED PELVIS AND LACERATED EYE.
1. I
side. The front passenger and i am
the
witch
doctor's survived.with a crushed pelvis
daughter
and lacerated eye.
My father passed away in a car 2. crash, while speeding away from
town.
away
from
his he was laughing, and i was
sons.car with him when the laughing, i said we are home accident
happened
and
I free.by tommoro morning i will
believe that his sons were be on my way, to london. pursuing me and not him, he was laughing at me.No one because
they
heard
planned
to
kidnap
that
I is chasing you. When you get to
their London
nephew.
send me‌.
We were both very drunk when I couldn't hear what he said i the accident happened. we should send him. There was a went the wrong way onto a horn blaring and we saw the one
way
wanted pursuers.
bridge,because
us As
to we
i red lights of a truck.we saw the
elude
our truck floating toward us. We
flew
we felt like ghosts in a dream. I
smashed into a truck headfirst. can't recall what happened the truck climbed the left side after this.seeing the red lights of our vehicle and crushed my and hearing the blaring horn. father and a passenger in the drowning our voices. When I backseat
behind
him.
they woke I was in a hospital.
both died. I was on the right
INK. SECTION: WITH MUSTAPHA
3.
naturally. I am safe. My faith is
4.
in my untimely death.the Men
5.
will find me here.but i know
6.
not how
7. 8.
19.
9.
20.
10.
21.
11.
22.
12.
23.
13.
24.
14.
25.
15.
26.
16.
27.
17.
28.
18.
29. 30.
he said many of us who are alive AND I HAD A FRIEND worked out our salvaciรณn from the presente doom through driving me wrecklessly on a our devoted work in our past motor bike through traffic on 30000
lives
too.theres
and
nothing
this
life our bridge.i squeezed his waste
such
as and begged him to slow down
luck.I know how it ends.I will or be care. I relaxed when he always hold on to faith. It is a shunted and rode us down the song strange: I will live and die . steps away from Smashing iron
fell toward pale green water the steps had ended. I prepared to crash into the
ocean
and
prayed
to
myself. Boy not to panic but float and paddle myself to the columns attached to the bridge. The Man who fell with me.the driver
carried
me
through
swimming and pushed me to the column base.he was my friend.
I
was
praying
that
though i live i shouldnt suffer nightmares from this how i could have died. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. i tried to relax, so as not to panic or cry, since it was inevitable.
I
was
going
to
drown. I relaxed a little and found myself sinking, into the cushion, and tried as much as possible not to think about my family, having to mourn me. Then
I
thought
about
my
father, I tried not to think about him, that he would no longer be visiting me, since my head was drowning.
INK. SECTION: WITH ZIZIKAZI
Zizikazi is a writer, actress, radio
personality,
speaker,
mentor
public and
a
model. Born in a small town called
Tsomo,
currently
Zizikazi
enrolled
is at
University of the Western Cape as a final year student majoring
in
Media
and
Psychology. She is inspired by her grandparents' stories, with an eagerness to share them with the rest of
the
world. The writer is a free spirited woman, sapiosexual and
self-identifying
nonconformist. Her previous projects
include
a
book
called 'Sifunda Ngokwenza', a few years in theatre, and is currently a radio personality at UDaps radio.
NDIKHULILE NDIBONILE
Oko bendingumntwana
Uza kwenzakala ukhaba umviko
ndinqwanqwadwa
nje
Ndikhahlelwa ndiholongwa
Wakha watsho owaseBhayibhileni
Ndibangulwa ndisambeswa
Ntonje ndilibala igama lakhe
Ndigutywa ndinkqonkqwa
Abizwa ngalo lweCawa.
Ngezinjani zona iziluleko? Wema wakhula umthi wom – Ndibe ndicinga njengomntwana
Okhi
Ngoku ndiphekwe ndavuthwa
Hayi gxebe owom-Ebhoni
tubhu
Mehlo ngathi ngawehlosi
Obona mna ubona I – Ebhoni
Buhle obunje bakha belanywa
Mthi mni owalanywa zizizwe?
yini na?
Ndisakhasa ndikhasela eziko
Andithethi ngezikrweqe,
Ndidlal’oonopotyi nezidudu
nezangotshe
Ndihlatywa ngameva obuntwana
Lwimi lulephuza amadangatya
Yantununtunu indaba.
Nkcubeko ibuthwa phantsi Kunkcenkceza isiXhosa
Ndee gqi sendigingqa Ndikhas’eleziko
Kwee qwenge lakhula usana
Bathi “Hata” abaziyo
Kwagabuka amehlo
Kaloku inyathi ibuzwa
Yehl’intlekele! Mawoo! Kazi iyozala
kwabaphambili.
nkomoni na?
Uza kwenzakala ukhaba umviko
Wayithatha ingcaphe waluthatha
nje
usiba
Wakha watsho owaseBhayibhileni
Hayi wabhala umntwana
Ntonje ndilibala igama lakhe
Ntinga ntakandini.
INDLALA Awu! Madoda yhini na le? Izinto ezibuhlungu azipheli Izinto ezilusizi ziyenzeka Andisathethi ke ngamasikizi Azi ukuba wawuvela phi na wena ndlala? Azi ukuba banalishwa lini na abafikelwa nguwe Azi ukuba bashwatyulelwa yini na bona Kha uhambe kaloku phakathi kohlanga oluNtsundu. Bambi bathi uza namava Bambi bathi uza nempumelelo Bambi bathi uligwala Mna ndithi ungumdodobalisi ngqondo. Hayi amanyundululu amasikizi owenzayo Hayi indlelol’ otshabalalisa ngayo umlisela nomthinjana wezwe lethu. Bazinikela kwezesondo kuba ubabhuqa ngemva Bangamaxh’obeziyobisi kuba bacima iintsizi Le ndaba iqale emyezweni kuba watya u-Efa uNongqawuse naye waqhubekeka UThuthula naye wasele eqhuba le nqwelo Ulutsha nalo lwayityekeza ngezigigaba zakho ndlala ndini!
"Writing music is like writing a book. You have to paint the situation for the listener and every word you use has to add to the description.� BONGEZIWE MABANDLA
2020
SONGS OF LIBERATION
FEATURE
#5
THE EFFECT OF TRADITIONAL AFRICAN MUSIC ON LIBERATION SONGS Words Lukhanyo ka Dideka
To
demonstrate
the There is a song called Palesa
significance and the function that
we
sang
during
the
of music in the everyday life of national protests of Fees Must African
society,
Tönsing
Gertrud Fall and that resonates with
analyses
interrelationship Christian
the the
assertion
of
emotional
between expression by Tönsing. For the
choruses
and context of #FeesMustFall the
liberation songs. The scholar song
was
not
necessarily
notes that in traditional African relevant; however, it was made societies music was rather a to be with the alteration of the necessity than it was luxury as lyrics to fit the context. The it was ‘integrally linked with song starts as a lament by a every aspect of community life man who I assume had spent and essential of creating bonds the and
sharing
news.’
1
night
out
with
Palesa.
Also, However, on the hour that they
traditional African music or must leave for ‘home’ (his place what is referred to here as I
assume
again),
Palesa
cultural songs were – and still disappears, and so laments the are – characterised by their guy: vocality, and with the clapping (call)
Oh
yhini
ses'goduka
of hands and stamping of the Palesa x2 foot which often take the place Oh just when we were about to of the percussion instruments. go home Palesa This characteristic of traditional that (response) yhini ses'goduka songs could be sung wherever Palesa x2 and whenever. Tönsing further Just when we were about to go African
music
meant
argues that this feature of home Palesa traditional African music was always available for expression (call) Wavele wanyamalala x2 You just disappeared(response) of emotions. 2
THULA WE MDUNDI SIZELE WENA wavele wanyamalala x2
Though the song was not a
You just disappeared
liberation song, as its lyrical content was not political, it was
Ohh yhini ses’goduka Palesa!
however,
given
Oh just when we were going
purpose by the students: that
home Palesa!
of
capturing
Another
a
political
and
unifying.
scholar,
Anne
The song would go on like this
Schumann, who also analyses
from the start to the end, only
the
changing in timbre as well as
attests that even though the
in
texts of such songs “were not
rhythmic
patterns.
and
make
of
songs
always political ones, their use
relevant to the student scene
was nevertheless to advance a
we tweaked it, and added a
political cause.” 3 Considering
call
guy,
all that the students were
addressed here as a student, to
seeking to achieve through
not cry as we have come here
their
for him:
respective
the
to
use
it
to
Thus,
melodic
political
lamenting
demands
to
their
institutional
management, it was important (call)
Thula
we
mfundi,
Quiet now student
that they remain united and determined on the cause they had taken up to achieve, and
thula we mdundi sizele wena
songs such as Palesa were
x2
therefore
Don’t cry we have come for you
purposefully to mobilise and
deployed
unify students behind their (reponse) Thula we mfundi,
demands.
Quiet now student
response
The of
the
call song
and is
accompanied by clapping and thula we mfundi sizele wena
stamping
of
the
foot.
The
x2
former is a cry by the lead
Don’t cry we have come for you
singer, for Palesa who had
vanished with the night, and
The
he is supported through his
which
pain
student to cease crying over
by
a
sympathetic
response.
sympathetic asks
response,
the
lamenting
Palesa as we – the students – have come for him, this should
Through clapping of hands
concurrently be interpreted as
and stamping, the rhythm and
an intervention made through
melody of the song is formed,
song. We should consider that,
and they go on through the cry
to sing that “we have come for
and
The
you”
and
students against a society that
response with the rhythm and
perpetuated their systematic
melody
a
marginalisation, as such they
captivating factor that is able
had had enough, and be that it
to draw and unify any mass
maybe, they were prepared to
that
take on the system. 5
the
blending
response. of
gives
is
the
cry
the
singing
song
the
song.
as
a
stand
taken
by
However, when the lead singer (as the crying guy) laments,
The call and response effect
wavele
are
wanyamalala,
the
a
typical
feature
rhythm and melody break and
traditional
the arms of the lead singer and
which Tönsing accounts for
the sympathisers are tossed to
and adds that this effect is
the air in sign of vanishment.
suited to crowd singing. The
Taken
call
further,
the
missing
and
African
of
response
of
enables
a
African
music
to symbolise the unfulfilled
dialogue
between
promises of the post-apartheid
singer
dispensation,
following.
enshrined
on
that the
are
of
style
Palesa could be interpreted as
and
songs
those
the who
Through
lead are this
Freedom
dialogue they state their claims
Charter – which was adopted
and demands, or anything the
in Kliptown on the 29th of
song may be calling to action,
June in 1955. 4
or referring to. This warrants a
strong lead singer to introduce
(and
enough variation to keep the
other. The other point is that,
interest and dynamism of the
the Freedom Charter is at the
group going. 25 The call of the
fore of the split between the
leader commands, or gives a
ANC and the Africanist bloc
directive of which the response
that formed the Pan Africanist
follows, and it clearly indicates
Congress in 1959 led by Robert
to the desired politics of the
Sobukwe – which conceived
group singing liberation songs.
the struggle for the liberation of
1
Tönsing,
Africans
to
from
be
each
that
of
‘Limnandi
Africans only, and anyone who
Hlanganani
was an ally or sympathiser had
Bafundi: An exploration of the
to organise themselves and
interrelationships
rally behind the cause under
Evangeli
G.
ethnicities)
and
between
Christain choruses and South
the leadership of Africans.
African songs of the Struggle’. (2017):
2
21
Ibid.
22
4 The extent of violence that
Schumann, A. (2008). ‘The Beat
ensued at various campuses
that Beat Apartheid: The Role
illuminates
of Music in the Resistance
students carried to further their
against
cause,
Apartheid
P.
in
South
the
however,
will the
that latter
Africa’, P. 243 The Freedom
should not be read as to be
Charter is important on at least
saying that the student incited
two points in the history of the
the
South African liberation; the
higher institutions of learning –
first, it signals the unification of
rather, the opposite is true. The
the different interest groups in
history of the South African
the
Police Service, in the apartheid
political
South
Africa
apartheid
landscape against
state
–
of the
which
and
violence
the
that
ravaged
democratic
state,
proves of its incapability to
intended on enhancing those
resolve
conflicts
with
differences by separating races
movements and protest
mass
situations. The case of Andries Tatana – shot dead by police in Sasolburg in a service delivery protest – and the Marikana massacre attests to the latter. Instead
of
institutional
executives and governmental officials to take accountability, students were met by the brutal force of the law; the police
service
and
private
securities were deployed to put an end to the protests by any means
necessary,
and
the
students were to have none of it – universities caught fire. 5 Tönsing, G. (2017). ‘Limnandi Evangeli
and
Hlanganani
Bafundi: An exploration of the interrelationships
between
Christain choruses and South African songs of the Struggle’. P 3. See also, Peis, P. (1996) ‘Kizungu
Rhythms:
Luguru
Christianity as Ngoma’, Journal of Religion in Africa, Vol. 26.
Sukoyika