Hugh Masekela— Stimela The Coal Train

Image adopted from: Genius

Mining in South Africa was once the main driving force behind the history and development of Africa’s most advanced and richest economy. Large scale and profitable mining started with a discovery of a large diamond at the banks of the Orange River in 1867 by Erasmus Jacobs and the subsequent discovery and the exploitation of the Kimberly pipes a few years later. The gold rush in Pilgrim Rest, Bubberton were precursors to the biggest discovery of ore, with this history South Africa remains the richest cornucopia of mineral riches. It is the worlds largest producer of chrome, manganese, platinum, vanadium and vermiculite, it is the second largest producer of ilmenite, it is also the third largest coal exporter. All these mineral resources are extracted from the soil using peoples bodies as excavators or extraction tools. The black body being the engine of this extraction. History records that South Africa was built at the back of black people from all over Southern Africa, from mining to railway construction a black man has been a part of this project. It is with this history that the late Hugh Masekela records “Stimela” the coal train that transports these bodies from their homes to capital reserves to mine gold, build railways lines and enrich the deep pockets of capital and those who run the marketplace.

When Cecil John Rhodes, the orchestrator and leader of the colonialist project in South Africa was putting together the Cape To Cairo railway project, a system that would make it easy for the exploitation of the mineral wealth of the vast interior of the African continent, men in the Southern African parts of the continent were to work as cheap labour on this project to build the railway system that would transport the mineral wealth- this is when Bra Hugh coined the song ‘Stimela’:

Stimela Lyrics

There is a train that comes from Namibia and Malawi!

There is a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe!

There is a train that comes from Angola and Mozambique!

Stimela sihamba ngamalahle
Sivel’ eDalagubhayi
Sangilahla kwaGuqa
Bathi sizomba amalahle (Sizomba amalahle)
Stimela sihamba ngamalahle
Sivel’ eDalagubhayi
Sangilahla kwaGuqa
Bathi sizomba amalahle (Sizomba amalahle)

Iyohhh stimela
Sind’ inyul’ enkomponi (stimela)
Stimela!
Sihleli njengezinja, siyelele mame
Emigodini mama (Bathi stimela)
Sikhalel’ izihlobo zethu (Masibuyeleni! eDalagubhayi)
Sikhalel’ izingane zethu wololo! (Masibuyeleni! eDalagubhayi)
Sikhalel’ abazali wethu, mama oh! (Masibuyeleni! eDalagubhayi)
Sikhalel’ abafazi bethu!
Yelele yelele yelele yelele yelele (Masibuyeleni! eDalagubhayi)

Stimela
Sihamba ngamalahle
Sivel’ eDalagubhayi

Stimela was Bra Hugh’s protest song against the injustice of the colonial project which was migrant labour that separated families and robbed the black family of a solid family structure. His lament was amongst other thing the exploitation that happens in the black body.

Stimela is a tale that tells a story of a monument to which capitalists like Cecil Rhodes accrued their wealth, and continues to survive using the backs of black poor people in Southern Africa.

Busi Mhlongo was the best to ever do it!

Busi Mhlongo: Photograph courtesy of Melt 2000/Matsuli Music

I was introduced to Manjomane’s music by my late father, a staunch jazz lover. As a form of adoration and praise tata called Busi Mhlongo with her totem, uManjomane. My first encounter and recollection of her music was from a cassette that was always played by my father every Sunday morning when he was around for the weekend. The echo’s of Ntandane, a song about abandonment and unrequited love would play on my mind days after dad rewinded and repeated it during those special weekends, with the smell of pork filling our house as he religiously cooked to relieve my mother. On Ntandane, my now favorite song and reminder of my fathers presence at home is a song Mhlongo sang in lament of the abandonment of her family by her father, with an aching but beautiful vocal this singer would swing and move with the guitar as she took her fans through the story of disappointment and lack of a fathers love through music. Even through the pain Busi Mhlongo was still the best to ever do it. You would never listen to her songs and be left unchanged. She sang with her soul. This is why i believe that there is a strong connection between music and spirituality, otherwise how do we explain the healing that comes with songs. The healing that comes with Busi Mhlongo’s music. I have contemplated to write about uMam’ Busi from the infancy of my blogging, but how do you write about such an icon. What do you even say about the talent Busi Mhlongo was, you cant define with just a few words. Giant writers can only write about this singer who commanded respect just by song. It always feels like she was sending out a message with every song. There is no in between with her songs, though filled with some heart wrenching messages, her music would never leave you unchanged.

Bongeziwe tours South Africa.

Bongeziwe opens with Azange.

Iimini, Bongeziwe Mabandla’s album was released in August 2020, during the height of the global pandemic. This stellar album was released during the time when musicians couldn’t be on stage to give live performances. This was also a time where a lot of us realised that music and human contact are purposeful in the face of the pandemic.

Things have eased up and Mabandla has finally decided to grace his listeners here at home with live performances, visiting each city after his world tour. All his shows are sold out. The 34 year old singer has an infectious, earnest presence and a stellar resume. He’s been singing his entire life. He’s melodious voice pierce’s the walls of the Anglican church where his performance is held, a dear friend remarks that his high pitch sounds like he was programmed to sing from birth. Indeed he’s a product of a church choir, from back home in the Eastern Cape as a young boy. The church as his choice of venue is also symbolic of something.

During his performances he notes that he has a new album on the way, his discography is growing, simultaneously he gives us a taste to one of his songs in the album with sensation ‘noba bangathini na’, we are all sold!!
The song is soothing, genre-defying, and beautiful.

In between songs he laments that it’s crucial for creators to find purpose in music and performance, to create with people’s experiences in mind. I also agree that it is important that we find purpose in the arts. I believe that creating an art is an extractive practice, you have to peel parts of yourself and your experiences away in order to produce anything. Bongeziwe has done this very well in all his albums. He sells out concerts because his music comes from experiences and is widely relatable.

For this AFDA graduate music is a journey. A space symbiotic to both the listener and the creator.

Noba Bangathini na.

The cultural significance of Jazz music in South Africa:

South Africa like many other African countries has a fiery and diversified music scene, with jazz music as one of the most popular genres in the country. South Africa developed its own fervent and beautiful style of jazz from the 18th century, creating a unique and vibrant genre in the countries sprightly filled music scene. The diverse culture and heritage of the South African people, the African-American influence and the apartheid era forms part of the history of this genre.

The development of jazz music in the South African liberation struggle marked an era of political awareness in the marginalised communities during the apartheid period. A lot of jazz artists such as the late Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwanga and many others emerged in the music scene during this time, to spread awareness on the brutality of the regime of the time, to entertain, to educate and console.

Today this acclaimed genre has been popularised both locally and internationally, with various artists and jazz music lovers congregating in the City of Cape Town for jazz festival- an annual music festival held in Cape Town with various jazz artists from all across the world performing spirit filled melodies.

The South African jazz music together with its artists cannot be faulted, it has a class of its own, it’s uniquely packed with brilliant women and men who are all rich in instrument and in melody.

Youth day 🌸

It started with a government announcement, in 1976.A youth by the name of Tsietsi Mashinini is said to have emerged through the back door of the Soweto match box house that was his home.His boyish face was lined with animated anxiety. It was winter and the sun had not yet set.Nevertheless  it was almost dark in Soweto. The dull red ball of the sun hung hardly visible behind a curtain of coal smoke emitted by countless chimneys and braziers. A medical officer at a health seminar cynically remarked that in Soweto everybody was a passive smoker, because of the heavey blanket of smoke that always enveloped the township, especially during winter months.

Dubbed by some as the largest city in Africa, South of the equator, Soweto has ironically ,never had any significant history of protests before 1976.The world heard of Sharpville and Langa long before Soweto emblazoned itself into the headlines of the global press.But now it had became a permanent feature in the news, billed as a symbol of youthful resistance to apartheid.It was sparked by an announcement  by the Minister of Bantu Education that henceforth, black children would be taught in Afrikaans   “whether they liked it or not”.

That is what gave birth to June 16 or rather youth day. Soweto is a typical bastard child of apartheid regime. It was established in the early 20th century as an informal settlement for African miners and their families. They were lured from their villages to the area by the great gold rush in Johannesburg and it’s outlying areas.It gained official recognition in the 1940’s and the early 1950’s when in terms of the apartheid laws ,African residents from townships of Alexandra, George Koch and Sophiatown were forcefully removed and dumped there.Overnight these areas were declared “black spots” by government decree and thus their occupants had to be removed ,to make way for white residential areas.The name Soweto is an acronym for South West Townships.

In quite a strange way Soweto represented different interests to various groups.To an industrialist ,Soweto is his labour reservoir.A place to where trucks are sent in the morning every weekday ,to come back filled to brim with grining faces of cheap labour.To white people in the suburbs,  it was a place that amazingly swallowed all those black people who during the day littered the pavements of Johannesburg.To a simple police officer Soweto stood as a monument to the success of the police of separate Development.It kept blacks out of the hair of whites ,whilst at the same time allowing the latter easy access of plentiful cheap labour.

The African’s issue was merely a fuse that ignited resentment that had been simmering since the early 1950’s when the Bantu Education Act was introduced and implemented.This has created a lot of logical peoblems in black schools where by 1976 most teachers were not themselves sufficiently educated to teach others in that language.The students of Soweto led by Mashinini were just one of the many regiments that fought the apartheid government on many fronts and suffered extensive losses.When they marched , on that historical morning of 1976, they were not the first nor would be the last casualties in the fight to unseat the evil and repressive machinery of the apartheid state.It would be long time before the last echoes of gunfire had died over Soweto and other parts of the country.

Domestic violence

“In 1998 South Africa created the Domestic Violence Act to try and protect those who are being abused or might be forced into a situation that could become harmful in the future.At this time, the biggest assistance to woman came from the protection order that derives from Domestic Violence Act”

South Africa has one of the highest incidents of Domestic Violence in the world.And sadly, domestic violence is the most common and widespread human rights abuse in South Africa.Everyday woman are murdered, threatened and humiliated by their partners within our homes.

For the past few months South Africa has became one of the most highly menacing place for woman.This country has seen it’s woman being brutally murdered by their partners and burnt to death.

A recent event has been one of the gruesome  murder of Karabo Mokoena, a young girl who was killed and burnt by her boyfriend Sandile Montsoe.This incidents left all woman of the country in a sad and scary place for their own lives.

One would often wonder why is this happening at the face of the country that advocates so much for woman and children rights,rights of the LGBTI community & all other vulnerable groups. Are we really talking the talk or we are just passing time? Why has the citizens have to taken any alternative measures in protecting woman,children ,gays and lesbians in this country?Who do we blame? Where did we go wrong? Why do woman suffer and get asphyxiated at the hands of the very man who are supposed to respect our honour, men?

South Africa:the home for refugees.

South Africa has been a country of immigration for hundreds of years and the county’s mines and farms have relied on migrant labour from all over South Africa.

After a long history of persecuting the majority of its citizens and sending exiles throughout the world ,the end of apartheid has made South Africa an attractive destination for significant number of refugees and asylum seekers from conflict-ridden countries across the continent.

There are presently almost 150 000 refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa.Though this number is small compared to the camps in Kenya ,Tanzania,Uganda and elsewhere in Africa ,many suspect that the true number of refugees in South Africa is much higher.

The largest number aproximately 30 000,are from the DRC, with significant groups from Somalia,Angola, Burundi,Ethiopia and Eritrea, as well as growing numbers of Zimbabweans.

The South African government together with the UNHCR and other bodies is helping to return Angolan and Rwandan refugees.Many of these are reluctant to leave ,however and are therefore likely to join the hundreds of thousands of other undocumented migrants in the country.

Unlike,most countries in the continent ,South Africa does not maintain refugee camps quid refugees get little direct assistance. Rather the country has adopted a rights-based approach ,which formally allows refugees the right to work,move feel within the country and access social seizes such as education and health care.

In practice,however there are significant problems in accessing these rights.Many would be asylum seekers are refused access to government offices if they cannot pay bribes.Others wait years to be granted formal refugee status,and then still face difficulties in acquiring identity documents and accessing services.

Hostility from the police ,government ,service providers and south African citizens make life difficult and some refugees have been reported by an overzealous and corrupt immigration control system.The government has undertaken to reform this system, but change is slow in coming.