African Music: Where Culture, Sounds, and Synths Collide

From groove to grief, music is our little saving grace. We look to it to connect with our past, survive the present and have hope for the future. We spoke to three musicians whose music has offered us endless joy and inspiration.

- By Sanelisiwe Maliza

For many, music is not about clefs, symbols, lines, and spaces. It is more intuitive, emotive and innate.

From the church member that plays the rhythmic chimes of the triangle, the DJ that releases the song that we dance to at 00:00 as we kiss the year goodbye, or the Gwijo Squad that unifies fans at a Rugby World Cup final. As South Africans, music is the medium we choose to protest, celebrate, honour ancestors and pray to who we believe in since the beginning of time.

As Mark Twain said, 'There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope? That is the African musical landscape - a kaleidoscope of culture and history colliding with sounds and synths to make genres like Amapiano, Afrobeat and folk music.

We spoke to three remarkable South African artists, Simphiwe Dana, Da Capo and Bongeziwe Mabandla, on their lives, careers and how they are creating and weaving worlds into melodies.

THE GIFT THAT HAS KEPT ON GIVING

WITH 20 YEARS OF MUSIC INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE BUT ONLY SIX STUDIO ALBUMS, SIMPHIWE DANA HAS BEEN DELIBERATE ABOUT HER WORK PACE.

When your parents name you, they have high hopes for your future. Your name is the message they send out into the world in thankfulness and expectations. On 23 January 1980, it was both a prophecy and prayer when her parents named her, Simphiwe Sinethemba Dana. Roughly translated, Simphiwe means we have been given a gift.