Don't Be Starry Eyed And Ignorant

FORBES AFRICA spoke to a multimillion-dollar African artist on how easy it is to lose out. Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse sang for Nelson Mandela and Bill Clinton and played with Percy Sledge — but suffered exploitation along the way.

- Yonela Mgwali

It’s a busy Thursday morning in South Africa’s famous Vilakazi Street, in Orlando West, in Soweto with tourists roaming about. This street was not only home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but also legendary musician Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse.

On this day, at a wine bar, Mabuse leans on the table to make his point. He feels up-and-coming musicians should be wary of exploitation.

“If one is not stable then you lose your mind and values. When you’re young, starry-eyed and ignorant you get so exploited by promoters, record companies; everyone takes advantage of your naiveties. If you don’t have resilience you end up an alcoholic or a drug addict just to numb the pain of what the industry can inflict,” he says.

Mabuse started playing the drums at the age of eight, an instrument that he would master so well that a fellow band member, Condry Ziqubu, gave him the nickname ‘Hotstix’.

His journey began 50 years ago, when he formed a band, The Beaters, at high school in Soweto.

“We were adored by the media and everyone. The Beaters became popular among the students in universities and high schools. We toured to neighboring countries like Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia.”

In the 1970s, they visited Zimbabwe as an Afro-funk group and named themselves in honor of the future name of the capital city.

“Zimbabwe was known as Rhodesia back then; we were influenced by the grounds of black consciousness. We were conscious of our surroundings and interacting with the struggle itself. It was imperative for us to change the name to Harari.”