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Mail & Guardian

Kwaito

latest news & developments
Style: For more than three decades, Trompies have deliberately maintained their signature township boy attire of takkies and sporties. Photo: Supplied
ALEXANDRA

Kwaito isn’t dead, it’s evolving

Trompies’ story reveals how true legends endure by evolving without losing their cultural centre

  • Lesego Chepape
6 min read
One in a long line: Songbird Thandiswa Mazwai says she’s merely a conduit in the tradition of using their voices that was started by her forebears and will continue into posterity. Her upcoming Sankofa Music Fest will showcase this tradition. Photo: Supplied
AFRICAN DRUMMING

Thandiswa Mazwai: Still speaking for future generations

Thandiswa Mazwai celebrates 50 years and 30 years in music with the Sankofa Heritage Festival, blending heritage, innovation, and generational continuity

  • Kibo Ngowi
8 min read
Figuring on biggering: A day of music and culture in LInksfield.
AMAPIANO

Diary: Big Day Out with Oskido, RedFest2025 returns, UKZN’s tribute to Demi Fernandez

Your essential dose of art and culture

  • Lesego Chepape
2 min read
Great soul: A film about Robert Sobukwe is to be screened at Constitution Hill, where he was imprisoned.
CONSTITUTIONAL HILL

Diary: Sobukwe film screening, Kwasuka Sukela a fun event for the whole family and Kwaito makes a komeback

Sobukwe film screened at jail where he was kept In celebration of Pan Africanist Congress founder Robert Sobukwe, who would have been 100 years old on 5 December, the…

  • Charles Leonard
2 min read
Resonating: DJ Matt Hichens does his thing at the One Park listening bar in Cape Town, known for its curated line-up of local DJs and diverse mix of genres. Photo: Charles Leonard
ANIME

Discovering Cape Town’s eclectic listening bars, where nightlife is redefined

The popularity of two Cape Town listening bars points to the need for more eclectic music spaces

  • Julia Snowball
6 min read
BATHU

Bathu unveils Ndofaya: A sneaker that celebrates the spirit of true resilience and authenticity

The iconic brand has joined forces with SA icon Mandla Spikiri Mofokeng, aka The King Don Father

  • Bathu Shoes
2 min read
Ahead of their time: Boom Shaka endorsed individuality, being openly yourself, whatever your sexuality, before it was a thing.
BOOM SHAKA
Video

It’s About Time! Quartet put the boom into SA musical culture

There was kwaito,and then there was Boom Shaka. We went in search of what it is about the group that made us fall so hard for them 30 years ago

  • Tseliso Monaheng
10 min read
South African musician, Thandiswa Mazwai, who is known for lauding women who have shaped the woman that she is, during one of her performances.
A LETTER TO AZANIA

Award-winning artist Thandiswa Mazwai brings ‘A Letter To Azania’ to Cape Town

Stunning show is a sonic exploration of a note written by the musician to the land of freedom centred around love and words

  • Bongeka Gumede
4 min read
AMAPIANO

Bringing sounds together: How Kwesta and Kabza De Small formed an unlikely union

After several years out of the limelight, Kwesta hopes to rediscover his flair with an experimental new collaborative project.

  • Shingai Darangwa
8 min read
Music producer Evens Radebe works on a song with his partner Augustine Mbatha as dancer Jayden looks on. Photo: Oupa Nkosi
AMAPIANO

The evolution of amapiano

Sound that has taken the world by storm is in danger of dying out in a lacklustre industry

  • Oupa Nkosi
8 min read
Hugh Masekela gets real about knowing your roots
BRENDA FASSIE

The A to Z of South African music books

Books by or about local musicians, the music business and the music scene

  • Ernesto Garcia Marques
16 min read
Hopeful moment: HHP performing at Back To The City in 2016. ‘What we saw on stage was a man seemingly winning the war; making progress in pulling himself out of the depressive abyss,’ writes Sabelo Mkhabela. (Sabelo Mkhabela)
FGTBB

The Portfolio: HHP’s silver lining at Back To The City

Jabba’s Back To The City performance in 2016 was a late-career triumph for the visionary MC, but its promise would prove elusive

  • Sabelo Mkhabela
3 min read
The Brenda Fassie statue by Angus Taylor at the Market Theatre in Newtown acknowledges her place in heritage-making as an artist, posits the writer. (Paul Botes)
BORN TO KWAITO REFLECTIONS ON THE KWAITO GENERATION

Is kwaito an old thing yet?

Kwaito was born during South Africa’s transition to democracy and lives on as a kind of heritage

  • Esinako Ndabeni
3 min read
Mandla Spikiri is a kwaito artist who is very deliberate about the clothes he wears. (Oupa Bopape/Gallo Images)
BORN TO KWAITO REFLECTIONS ON THE KWAITO GENERATION

Extract from ‘Born to Kwaito’: How we choose to fashion ourselves

How we choose to dress is an instrument to communicate personal, race, class, gender and identity politics, as discussed in this extract from ‘Born to Kwaito’

  • Esinako Ndabeni
4 min read
Jefferson Tshabalala leans on a Kippie Moeketsi statue near Kippies, in Newtown, where he held a series of theatrical interventions titled Ama-Piece-Piece-Nyana. (Mlungisi Mlungwana)
AMA PIECE PIECE NYANA
Video

Thath’i sgubhu usfak’ es’ketchini: (Re)making theatre with Jefferson Tshabalala

J Bobs masterfully dismantles the highbrow/lowbrow binary in his theatre-making practice

  • Kholeka Shange
8 min read