Johannesburg – They tell me that on the day I was born, there was a cacophony of African melodies. Welded to the Soweto house inside which I was born, was a shebeen, always pulsating with music.
Thus was rhythm inscribed on the very walls of my soul, from my very beginnings. To this day, I won’t fall asleep without the assistance of a suitable African lullaby. Although my mother checked out early in my life, my father did not raise his children alone.
He was greatly assisted by, among others, Brenda Fassie, Khatisa Chabalala, Ray Phiri, Miriam Make ba, Lett a Mbulu, Obed Ngobeni, Daniel Shirindza, Hlengani William Makhube le, Samson Mthombheni, Vusi Mahlasela, and Thomas Chauke.
[membership level=”1″]What a privilege it was for me to witness the awarding of the degrees of doctor of performing arts (honoris causa) to Vusi Sydney Mahlasela and Thomas Hasani Chauke on November 12.
This is by the leading and largest university of technology in Africa – the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). Indeed, for a university that is only 17 years old, it is remarkable that in the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings, TUT is ranked the number-one university and one of the top seven local universities in engineering and computer sciences, respectively.
It was appropriate, therefore, that an institution that is rising like a phoenix and spreading its wings across the country, should honour two musicians who have defied and survived the apartheid system.
Under the cover of the pandemonium of praise-singing and the chaotic ululations that broke out as the names of the two men were called out, I shed tears of joy. Each in his own way, the two musicians encapsulate the joys and the sorrows of my multifaceted upbringing, split between Soweto and Limpopo.
If Mahlasela’s music embodies my militant township background, Chauke epitomises my somewhat quieter rural upbringing. Mahlasela is one of the finest sons of Mamelodi (place of whistles), a township that apparently owes its name to its first mayor, Hesekia Pitje. It is a fountain of talent.
Mahlasela’s music is as radical as it is unambiguously African. Only a stone can stay unmoved after listening to Mahlase la’s When you come back or Tonkana. The farewell song to Mahlasela’s own mother, River Jordan, makes me realise how disparate and how dim the pieces of memory I have of the funeral of my own mother are.
Clearly, Mahlasela has been deeply influenced by such fellow Mamelodi icons as Philip Tabane, Mabi Thobejane, Julian Bahula, and Abbey Cindi. His deeply spiritual lyrics are inspired not only by these great musicians but also by such Mamelodi struggle martyrs as Solomon Mahlangu, Stanza Bopape, Florence, and Fabian Ribeiro.
Chauke is the fourth and only son of Sixpence and Tsatsawani Chauke, residents of Salema village, near Punda Maria. His journey in music began when, as a young man, he made a guitar using a derelict oil tin. Thirty-five albums and 41 years later, Chauke has sold up to 4-million copies of most of his albums.
In terms of sales, he has few equals in the local music industry. However, it is Chauke’s ability to tug at the heartstrings of his compatriots that have kept him at the top for decades. From Phalaborwa to Khayelitsha, his fans cannot have enough of his songs such as Mukon’wana, Rhoza, Yehovha, and Mavholovholo.
He is a storyteller, prophet, poet, counsellor, and therapist. Together with fellow Limpopo musicians like Paul Ndlovhu and Obed Ngobeni, Chauke turned a damned bantustan into a hub of cultural resistance. Through their albums titled Graceland (1986) and Paradise in Gazankulu (1988), Paul Simon and Harry Belafonte, respectively, paid fi tt ing homage to this spirit of resistance.
TUT could not have honoured a more deserving artist. Join me in saying, hoyo-hoyo wena To masi wa Xitlhangoma wa Ndhandhazi, wa Xinavele, wa Macevulani, wa Marhumbe, wa Xiwili, wa Xitlhangu, wa Mbendzani, wa Xinyori Xahumba xa kangetela ribyeni!
• Professor Maluleke is a senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship. Follow him on Twitter @ProfTinyiko
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