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.