Hello everybody on HIVE, and especially the Music Community. My name is Jasper and I'm writing (and singing) to you from Cape Town, South Africa.
I have recently finished reading the autobiography of one of my favourite musical heroes from South Africa, Johnny Clegg. In it, he describes how he had no real father figure in his early teenage years, and was drawn to the masculinity and friendship of local Zulu migrants who had come up from the province of KwaZulu-Natal to his hometown of Johannesburg to find work.
Even though this all happened during the middle of the Apartheid era in South Africa, when racial segregation was heavily enforced by the Government and police, Johnny took the risk of learning the isiZulu language and culture, and started to learn the traditional Zulu guitar styles of maskandi and kwela, as well as the traditional Zulu styles of dancing and stick-fighting. After a bit of skepticism about what this white boy wanted, his Zulu friends realised that he was definitely in earnest about wanting to learn, and was a fantastic musician and dancer, and they accepted Johnny Clegg as an honourary Zulu.
He formed a band (Juluka) with a good friend, Sipho Mchunu, that perfectly blended Western Music with traditional Zulu music. Often the verses would be in English and the choruses in Zulu, and I have shared a few posts of those songs in the past when the Hive Open Mic theme has suited them...
For today's video, I share a Juluka song that seems to follow a traditional Zulu style more closely, and the lyrics are entirely in isiZulu. It is called "Thula 'Mntanami" which means "Hush Child" because it is supposed to be used as a lullaby! I will leave the full lyrics and translation at the bottom of the post.
Johnny Clegg eventually became very successful with his second band (Savuka) that also had a multi-racial cast and blended Western and Zulu styles. He became famous in Europe too where the Frence referred to him as "le Zoulou Blanc" (the white Zulu).
Johnny Clegg has unfortunately recently passed away from cancer. Before he passed away, he made a lovely documentary video where he explains how traditional Zulu guitar is tuned and played, and goes back to some of the traditional Zulu songs he learnt all those years ago, before he began adopting the style for his own music. Here is an excerpt from that documentary:
In more recent times, there is another young white man who has fallen in love with playing maskandi music and singing in isiZulu. His name is David Jenkins and he performs under the Zulu name Qadasi:
I recently came across this video of a 14 year old youngster in the township of Newcastle that blew me away. This young man would be about 19 years old now - how good is he now??
And to finish off the post in a full circle, here is a wonderful video of Johnny Clegg and Sipho Mchunu coming back together to play the very same song I did today: "Thula 'Mntanami". I hope you love it as much as I do!
I would be very interested to see some other HIVERs from other places in the world do a similar post where they tackle a more traditional musical style from their country and maybe share some videos of the famous artists who specialise in it? Is anybody out there up for the challenge? Please let me know in the comments?
Lyrics for "Thula 'Mntanami" by Juluka
O thula 'mntanami
(Hush my child)
Umam' uzofika
(Mother will arrive)
Wophathel' amaswidi
(She should be bringing sweets)
Amnandi (repeat)
(They are tasty/sweet)
O thula 'mntanami
(Hush my child)
Umam' uzofika
(Mother will arrive)
Wophathel' amaswidi
(She should be bringing sweets)
Amnandi (repeat)
(They are tasty/sweet)
O thula 'mntanami
(Hush my child)
Umam' uzofika
(Mother will arrive)
Wophathel' amaswidi
(She should be bringing sweets)
Amnandi (repeat)
(They are tasty/sweet)
O thula 'mntanami
(Hush my child)
Umam' uzofika
(Mother will arrive)
Wophathel' amaswidi
(She should be bringing sweets)
Amnandi (repeat)
(They are tasty/sweet)
https://genius.com/Juluka-thula-mtanami-lyrics
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