FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO THE WORLD - THE GIFT OF RHTHYM & DANCE

FROM SOUTH AFRICA

TO THE WORLD The Gift of Rhythm & Dance!

Delicious Festival

From Jerusalema to Umjaivo dance challenges to Makhadzi, South African music and dance is gaining popularity throughout the world. South African music and dance reveal our expressiveness and resilience as a people, engendering a sense of ‘I want what they have’ and says we should harness this global appreciation of our cultural expression as an anchor to niche tourism growth.

Salif Keita

In the opening stanza to his timeless masterpiece ‘Africa’, the African music maestro Salif Keita sings in French and in reference to our beloved continent; ‘Ca fait rever, ca fait vibrer, ca fait danser’, which translates to ‘It will make you dream, it will make you vibrate, it will make you dance’. A fitting description of the role music, dance, cultural and artistic creativity play in our continent. From Cape Agulhas to Ras ben Sakka in Tunisia, the continent’s southernmost and northernmost ends respectively, to its westernmost and easternmost extents Santo Antao in Cape Verde to Rodrigues in Mauritius, artistic and creative expression through song and dance is in us. It’s in our souls. It’s the limitless vault from which we draw inspiration when we need it, upliftment when the moment calls for it, encouragement in times of trial and struggle, comfort in mourning and despair, solace, expression of protest and remonstration, lamentation, celebration, communication and deep connection between the individual manifestations of our shared humanity.

Increasingly, and in the darkest hours of the past three years, the world has come to have a growing appreciation of the role these forms of expression can play in our lives. In particular, the Southernmost country on this continent and its people have, in Keita’s words, truly been making the world ‘dream, vibrate and dance’. Cast your mind back to the toughest moments of the pandemic, when every aspect of life was disrupted, when doom, gloom and even death abounded in most parts of the world, when the smiles that make us human were shrouded in masks and it seemed as if normalcy would never return in our lifetime. When the chips were down, the world needed a message of hope, upliftment and encouragement that the storm would eventually abate. Do you remember how that message was delivered most emphatically and rhythmically packaged in that global anthem of hope; South Africa’s Master KG’s ‘Jerusalema’. Viral doesn’t even begin to capture the dance craze the song inspired across all continents, languages, cultures, and time-zones.

JERUSALEMA – THE GLOBAL ANTHEM OF HOPE

From mask-clad doctors and nurses at the Children’s Cancer Centre in Gothernburg Sweden, to staffers of the Great Western Railway in the United Kingdom busting moves at an eerily deserted Paddington station. Monks, nuns, school children, national police forces, airline

Thuso Mbedu- Brian Bowen Smith

Makhadzi

Master KG

Nomzamo Mbatha Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Trevor Noah

Sho Madjozi-Sandton with friends crews, citizens of countries ordinarily hostile to one another such as Israel and Palestine. On the beaches in India, in Angola, in the Pueblos of New Mexico, the favellas of Rio de Jainero, the mountains of Lesotho, and every place you can imagine in between, the entire globe was moved by this one tune, to ‘dream, to vibrate and dance’. It was of course unsurprising and no fluke that such a global anthem of hope would come from these shores. South Africa has a long, illustrious and proud history of exporting its cultural products that readily find markets internationally. The legendary exploits of the likes of Ladysmith Black Mambazo andthe late Johnny Clegg, on the global music scene, as well as the likes of Trevor Noah, Charlize Theron, Nomzamo Mbatha, Thuso Mbedu on the silver-screen, and many more others in varied fields of the arts and entertainment, attest to the appeal and exportability of our cultural expressions.

That impeccably illustrious tradition is one thing. But a truly unique phenomenon is unfolding right now and deserves specific focus and analysis. Jerusalema was perhaps the most observable expression of what is a discernible trend of South African music and dance making the world sit-up and notice. It’s always been known that getting a flavour of the African beat and our dances captures the imagination of international tourists when they visit our shores. However, the growing phenomenon now signifies a shift from a fleeting dalliance with African rhythm and dance, to an opening up to, and full-on embrace of Africans as a people; their way of life and an expression that will arguably only be fully decoded by historians in years to come. This phenomenon is a big factor in explaining why artists like, Makhadzi, DJ Shimza among others now perform in soldout venues across the world and feature at revered festivals such as Coachella and Ibiza.

‘AMAPIANO HAS GONE REALLY FAR’

The growth of the uniquely homegrown genre of Amapiano and the dances this inimitable musical phenomenon readily inspires among South Africans has only served as accelerant to this trend taking like a wildfire around the world. These days, one minute ‘Umjaivo’ is trending in South Africa’s townships of Tembisa, KwaMashu, and KwaLanga, the next it’s the soundtrack of Tik-Tok video challenges shot by participants from Atlanta, Kampala and Manila and any other city you can imagine. Take for example, the phenomenally successful YouTube channel Ubunifu Space, started about three years ago, by a group of six young people from the United Kingdom, for the sole purpose of sharing their appreciation for, critiquing, and amplifying the profile of mainly South African music. You can’t help but swell with pride as you watch them bob their heads, snap their fingers and sway from side to side as they savour the thumping of the base expertly delivered by Busta 929 in ‘Mmapula’, Prince Kaybee in ‘Gugulethu’, or in their channel’s earlier days Destruction Boyz in ‘Omunye’ and ‘Midnight Starring’. One of those young content creators, Shay Sade has delivered this irrebuttable assessment of the South African sound; “Everyone in South Africa is doing really well. It’s been fantastic. Amapiano has gone really far”.

A key reason why these contemporary forms of South African music and dance have got the world to sit-up, listen and dance along is that our expressiveness as a nation shines through in the way we move to these beats. It’s an infectious energy, one that triggers a sense of ‘I want what they have’, among people from all over the world. The fact that genres like Amapiano, Gqom, South African house and the dance crazes they inspire seemed to accelerate rather than fade-off during the toughest moments for humanity also reveals our resilience as a people. And the world sees us ‘dancing our troubles away’, further engendering that ‘I want what they have’ phenomenon.

Max’s

WE’VE GOT THE GIFT OF RHYTHM. NOW WHAT DO WE DO WITH IT?

South Africa clearly has the magic of the beat and rhythm of which the world can’t get enough. One element of the music and dance lifestyle is the fact that it is inextricably linked to a vibrant nightlife culture. Needless to say, our country’s nightlife, club, bar and late night dining scene is a major tourism drawcard, not just for local, but for international travelers as well. Think Long street in Cape Town on a pumping Friday or Saturday night, think Eyadini and Max’s Lifestyle in Umlazi, Florida Road in Durban, think Konka in Soweto. It is possible to fashion unique tourist attractions that foreground the linkages between our music and dance culture on the one hand, and the country’s pulsating nightlife. If people around the world can’t get enough of our country’s music and dance, imagine the once-in-alifetime experiences we offer and the indelible prints left in their hearts and minds.

Local extravaganzas like the DSTV delicious festival are beginning to blaze the trail in more ways than one, by tapping not only into our country’s music and dance culture, but also into another noticeable feature of the post-lockdown world; people seeking, and even willing to travel for, unique culinary experiences. This trend too, presents many possibilities that we should fully harness, as shown by the growth of spaces like the Prison-Break Market and Victoria Yards in Johannesburg, that allow people to enjoy varied fresh, artisanal and even dietary-specific food and beverage experiences, along with craft markets and music, all in one relaxed, urban space. In a world where life as we know it can be flipped upside down in the twinkling of an eye, we owe it to ourselves to live abundantly, and yes to ‘dream, vibrate and dance’ as we live.