South African Folk Music

South Africa spans the entire southern tip of Africa and counts a population of 40 million people in an area slightly larger than California and Texas. Today a mixed population that descended from the original Africans and immigrant Europeans and Asians make South Africa a truly broad and vibrant mix of cultures.

The earliest inhabitants of South Africa were ancestors of the San and the Khoikhoi peoples. Centuries before Europeans arrived, a group of people historians call the Bantu spread from a homeland in west-central Africa and migrated south, eventually reaching South Africa. Their ancestors include the Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Tsonga, and Tswana, and Venda peoples. Today the ancestors of both the original Bantu, as well as the San and Khoikhoi, live in the country.

In 1652 people from Holland arrived on the shores of South Africa. Later, French and German settlers arrived and mixed with these people to form a culture called the Afrikaaners. English people came in the early 1800s, and eventually people from India, China, and other parts of Asia arrived as well.

The apartheid political system dominated South African history during the twentieth century. Indigenous Africans suffered horrendously in the face of forced relocation, travel restrictions, and generally oppressive laws. Music was often one of the only outlets in these troubled times, and much of the music in South Africa today still reflects the ache of the years under this system. Because of the major differences between the music of South Africans of European and Asian descent, this discussion will focus on the music of black South Africans.

Common Themes

Though there are numerous cultures and music traditions within those cultures in South Africa, there are some commonalities found throughout the country. First and foremost, vocal music-and specifically choral music-is the primary mode of musical expression. In addition, the call-and-response form with one soloist alternating with a chorus is found in nearly every culture. Among the Zulu, the "call" and the "response" often overlap so that the soloist begins before the chorus has finished its line.

Because of this emphasis on choral music, European church hymns were adopted and transformed rather rapidly, so today church music is one of the more popular forms. In the 1880s and 1890s, several groups of African American minstrel singers from the United States traveled to South Africa and performed spirituals, blues, and other popular styles of the day. These styles had a lasting effect on musicians in South Africa, and account for some of the similarities seen today.

Many music styles reflect the common emphasis on choral music. Isicathimiya is a Zulu style that features an all-male choir. One solo singer calls to other choir members who respond with their low, rumbling, rich harmony. Ladysmith Black Mambazo, led by Joseph Shabalala, is the most well-known isicathimiya group in South Africa and throughout the world.

Instruments

Another common thread through South African music traditions can be seen in the instruments of the area. All indigenous African cultures have some type of musical bow. Much like a hunting bow, it is made of a curved piece of wood with a string attached to each end. Often, a gourd resonator is attached to one end and a player is able to produce harmonics and change the timbre by pulling the gourd to and from the body. Unlike most other areas of sub-Saharan Africa, drums are not prevalent in South Africa and do not generally accompany dance. Dance is usually accompanied by choral singing, and dancers often have rattles tied to their legs to produce percussive sounds. Flutes of all different shapes and sizes are also common throughout the region.

European explorers and then settlers brought instruments with them and indigenous African musicians quickly adopted. The guitar, accordion, and tin whistle spread throughout the country and became a part of the instrumentation of many styles.

Contemporary Sounds

With the introduction of records and the radio, popular music transformed the South African soundscape. The slick guitar work of marabi and the amazing pennywhistle jazz of kwela spread all over southern Africa. In the 1960s and 1970s mbaqanga replaced the pennywhistle with a sax and conquered South Africa. Local blends of jazz, hip-hop, and new styles like kwaito which mixes hip-hop with Jamaican reggae and dancehall, demonstrate that the spirit of innovation still electrifies South African music.

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