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EXACTLY THE RIGHT PLACE The One Who Sings - By Dan Charles
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never label any of the recordings that I make using the voice memo app on my phone. Because of that, they all get automatically saved under the name of the location where a recording had taken place. Before the release of Thetha Mama - Zolani Mahola’s debut album as The One Who Sings - I revisited a short recording that I had captured at The Baxter Theatre in Cape Town at the end of last year. It was a spellbinding moment during the final night of Zolani’s one-woman stage production (also called The One Who Sings) when she had invited the audience to repeat a series of affirmations after her:
“I am safe. I am worthy. I am innocent. I am cherished. I am loved. I am a gift to this world.” Listening back to it, it became apparent how the things that we’re looking for out in the world or within art are oftentimes just the things that we are looking for in ourselves. The performance consisted of captivating anecdotes and intimate accounts of past traumas. The stories were all interwoven with the songs that defined her career as the lead singer of Freshly Ground as well as the new songs that would shape the next phase of her artistry. It was an exploration of the concealed pain of a South African icon, and how accepting that pain as part of her journey had allowed herself to heal, to show herself compassion, and to grow into the artist that she is today: The One Who Sings. “I am safe. I am worthy. I am innocent.” Just as the stage production did, the songs on Thetha Mama elicit a special kind of tenderness and bravery. The album is a gracious confrontation of the self, and it is also a conduit for deeply connecting ourselves to the stories of our collective human experience. Listening back to the album, as well as the recording in my voice memos, it became apparent how the things that we’re looking for out in the world or within art are oftentimes just the things that we are looking for in ourselves. Much like how a cartographer navigates foreign terrain in order to produce maps that allow us to explore new places, we often look to artists to navigate their own stories and experiences to produce art that allows us to explore ourselves. It’s easier to traverse new ground when we know someone has been there before. It is easier to embrace one’s self when another shows that it can be done. “I am cherished. I am loved. I am a gift to this world.”
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