Kwaito - Part 2

KWAITO – PART 2







Kwaito is viewed as a cultural product of the societal norms and historical context of townships of South Africa. Kwaito is serving a transmitter of popular fashion, language and attitude.

During the emergence of Kwaito, Boom Shaka emerged as a symbol of empowerment and voice for young women. A CNN article considered Boom Shaka and TKZee the most influential Kwaito groups in South African music. Kwaito music is not only popular in South Africa but all around Africa and one country in particular is Namibia.

Female Kwaito artists



Lebo Mathosa

Kwaito is a largely male-dominated genre, but despite that, there are a number of female artists who were successful in this genre. Brenda Fassie, the longtime pop superstar adopted a Kwaito style as it became more popular in the 1990s. According to Time, she was known for both her diva attitude and sex & drugs scandals but also for her lyrics that dealt with complex issues of African life and culture. Another artist is Lebo Mathosa who was killed in a car crash in 2004. She rose to fame as a group member of the Kwaito group Boom Shaka and she later became a solo artist. She was called South African’s ‘wild child’ because of her X-Rated lyrics and dance moves, but despite this, she gained widespread popularity, and performed at Nelson Mandela’s 85^th birthday celebration. According to FHM magazine, Lebo Mathosa performed alongside American female Hip Hop artist, Missy Elliot.

Kwaito and dancing

Kwaito is more than just a music genre. An article posted on CNN.com describes Kwaito as a whole subculture with a swirl of irresistible dance beats. According to Sonjah Stanley-Niaah in his article “Mapping Black Atlantic Performance Geographies: From Slave Ship to Ghetto”, dancing has given Kwaito increased appeal. In the beginning of the 1950s in South Africa, people went to “Shebeens” to listen to music, dance and socialize on the weekends. As kwaito emerged and became the norm of music in shebeens, its popularity quickly increased. The first kwaito group, Boom Shaka, was the first to create and popularize dance moves to accompany kwaito music. The steps are said to offer a window into the everyday lives of ordinary South Africans by building on traditional dance styles.

Kwaito went through a lot of transformations:

It started out as a music genre which was played in Shebeens in the 1950s;moving on to being a very popular genre among the youth of South Africa; and today it’s known to be the voice of many voiceless people out there who are in it to express their feelings. Dance is known to be a form of self-expression and so Kwaito dancing fits right in. You even find fashion designers who were inspired/fascinated by Kwaito artists to start a trend of fashion in accordance with Kwaito. Today Kwaito is seen as a form of lifestyle and not just music and dance.



KWAITO - APOLITICAL

Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. South Africa oozes with confidence when it comes to this genre of music. Kwaito is one of the most popular genres of music and dance amongst the youth in South Africa. Kwaito is a combination of catchy melodic, deep base lines, and vocals. A distinctive feature of Kwaito is the manner in which the lyrics are sung, rapped and shouted. There are even people who are claiming to be Kwaito originators:

One is Mdu, who claims he was the first to mix BubbleGum with house from the UK and the US back in the 1980s.

 The other is Arthur Mafokate who is also credited by some as the king of Kwaito, including himself as he wrote in a two-page piece called ”Am I the king of Kwaito?”

§   Mafokate’s claim to fame is due to importance of his 1993 song, “Don’t call me Kaffir”, which put the Kwaito genre on the charts. “Don’t call me Kaffir” was the first official Kwaito song played in South Africa. Kaffir is the Arabic word for ‘non-believer’ or a ‘heathen’, which was the word white colonialists would call black Africans. The song talked about how apartheid will not just go away overnight but change is coming.

As Thokozani Mhlambi states in his article Kwaitofabulous, “In Kwaito music, the emphasis lies not in the poetic essence of the lyrics but rather in the instrumental arrangement and the ‘danceability’ of the composition.” Kwaito has remained the music of its people, which is the music of the youth of South Africa who wish to pursue rest and relaxation as opposed to dwelling on the past. The danceability and poetry inherent to Kwaito shows a cultural diversity the youth follows. Through Kwaito music, artists and youths work together to create, through dance and music, a region where there’s no existence of a struggle.

Kwaito is a form of self-expression and a way of life – it is the way many South Africans dress, speak and dance. It’s a street style lifestyle where the music reflects life in the township. The fashion industry has flourished all over the country, with urban designers such as Sun-Godd’ess, Stoned Cherrie and Loxion Kulca setting trends emphasized by Kwaito artists. While it promoted South Africa internationally through successful overseas tours by artists such as Tkzee, Bommshaka and Bongo Maffin, Kwaito has gained a huge following with older Black people, as demonstrated by former President Thabo Mbeki when he performed the S’guqa dance with Kwaito artist Mzekezeke during his song “S’guqa ngamadolo” at the 2003 Freedom Day celebrations. This marked a huge change in the way people saw Kwaito.

Kwaito has grown from just a mere genre of song and dance that generated in the townships during apartheid and is now famously known all over.

South African theatre,blossoming...

source: http://www.google.com/

Theatre started in the late 1830s and to this day, it still exists and is more popular than before. Most of the people who are now known to be ‘movie stars’ started as stage actors in a theatrical production where they were discovered by producers who were looking for some new and raw talent. So in all, theatre is a good foundation for acting and if you can master theatre then you’ll blossom behind the cameras.

According to source the British troops felt a lack of distraction among a community that mostly spoke Dutch. That is when some of the officers began to stage amateur theatricals in what came to be known as the Garrison Theatre in Cape Town. The first companies to play on its boards were very amateur and mostly recruited from the garrison. Plays of every kind were staged there.

Sophiatown - production

Two or three short plays would be staged on one night in a reconstructed warehouse or store. Regimental bands often provided music for these non-military enterprises. People who attended theatre productions were mostly European, either administrative or military.

Source: http://www.google.com/

Today's theatre is more different. There are new themes, stories, and new directors.  The South African protest theatre which was an amplifier for the struggle for liberation transported the voices of freedom fighters across stages of the townships and the world. Great names like Mbongeni Ngema and Gibson Kente trained a generation of great talent that needed to flourish.

Previously politicized events, cultural treasures, personal stories and contemporary social issues are now being developed and staged by artists. Social issues like unemployment, crime, alcoholism and domestic violence are being explored afresh. Examples of these theatre productions are:

v  Aubrey Sekhabi’s ‘On My Birthday’, set in a black middle-class environment, focuses on domestic violence and adultery.

v  Thulani Mtshali’s ‘Weemen’, highlights domestic abuse but with an ending that shows an empowered victim who supported the abuser throughout his rehabilitation.

v  Sello Maake Ka-Ncube’s  ‘Kose Kuse Bash’, a portrayal of urban township partying and how an innocent search for fun can turn sour and lead to broken dreams and tragedy.

v  Johnny Loate’s ‘Cabbage and Bullets’, which won the Windybrow Arts Festival FNB Vita Award. ‘Cabbages and Bullets’ tells the story of two unemployed ex-Mkhonto weSizwe guerrillas who feel their struggle has gone unrecognized and so they turn to alcohol, drugs and crime out of frustration. source

It is definitely clear that the theatre in South Africa is doing very well for itself and even though it went through some difficult routes, it has reached  a point where it focuses on important and real  issues that affects people all around and not only the funny and fun stuff.

The growing entertainment industry

The entertainment industry is growing rapidly. Successful singer Lira is no ordinary artist. She’s been in the industry for over a decade now and according to Drum (2012; 13), her last four albums all went platinum on CD and triple platinum on DVD – plus she holds the honour of being the first African musician whose DVD was released on Blu-ray. She was the first South African artist to have a song played on VH1 – and a song as the soundtrack for international sitcom Girlfriends.

Source: http://www.google.com/

Fresh from her hugely successful US tour – Lira returns to the South African stage with The Captured Tour, in association with Nokia.  According to source, The Captured Tour is a homecoming of sorts for Lira who spent the last few months touring the planet in support of launching her international career and debut offering for the European and North American territories, Rise Again. The album, a collection of “best of songs”, represents years of personal and musical growth and development that have seen Lira create a unique and memorable sound that instantly stands out from the clutter of most modern music. Her emotive and uplifting songs will be brought to life in an energetic and unforgettable stage show that has been perfected through months of touring, playing to thousands of new adoring international fans. Now on the 29th October at the Sun City Superbowl there’ll be recording Lira’s second DVD. This is all proof that if you want something in life and you work towards it then it is that simple to achieve. Lira is proves that she set high standards for herself and she’s succeeding very well in those standards. You do not have the excuse of “it is hard and impossible.”

Source: http://www.google.com/

Moving on to movies, the movie Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, featuring Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow, Thomas Horn and Viola Davis. The film is about a father and son who understand each other and the devastation the World Trade Centre terrorist attack brings – death and the boy finding that his father is lost. Another interesting thing about this film is that the filmmakers made use of the terrible 9/11 images, especially of the people jumping to their deaths. According to City Press (2012; 08) this caused a bit of a roar but despite all that, the film was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. This movie is for the people who enjoy mystery and fiction.  

The entertainment industry is really growing quickly, now we are left with the question, 10-20 years down the line, how will the entertainment industry have changed?