SOUTH AFRICA: POPULARITY OF KWAITO MUSIC TAKES THE COUNTRY BY STORM

Record ID: 389012

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: POPULARITY OF KWAITO MUSIC TAKES THE COUNTRY BY STORM
  • Date: 16th March 2000
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA. (RECENT) (REUTERS) MAN IN RECORD STORE
  • Embargoed: 31st March 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA
  • Country: South Africa
  • Topics: Communications
  • Reuters ID: LVA9LGB9R70VP89UIFUTMYO5MWAW
  • Story Text: Anyone who is anyone on the South African music scene is getting into Kwaito.The hot new sound is taking the country by storm, and the thumping beats of kwaito are not just breaking musical boundaries, but racial ones as well.
    Kwaito is a uniquely South African musical style - a blend of township jive and hip-hop with a deep central African back-beat.It has emerged in the last few years as a musical expression of the life and times of South Africa's inner city youth - similar to American rap music which gave a lyrical voice to tough times in the inner cities there.
    Like rap - Kwaito has grown into a multi-million dollar business, outselling gospel and international releases, to account for more than half the music sold in South Africa.
    Riding this wave are groups like TKZeee Family, among the most popular Kwaito musicians in the country today.
    Their debut CD went triple platinum, shooting straight to the top of the local charts in lightening speed.
    Their latest album is set to eclipse their phenomenal debut , and the band are keen for their music to have wide appeal, "We want our music to be listened to by anybody, the same way that you get little black kids knowing Celine Dion songs off by heart.We just want to take our music as music and it should be able to appeal to anybody."
    This sort of cross-over appeal has been a long time coming in South Africa.For years - white people have tended to buy CD's by white artists while black South Africans tend to buy music by Black artists.
    Despite this division - the music industry in South Africa is booming In the new South Africa - the self-styled rainbow nation - Francois Henning is striking a blow for racial harmony on the music scene.Better known as Lekgoa or white-boy in Sotho, Henning is making waves in Kwaito music.
    The 27-year old native of Zimbabwe belts out his songs in a variety of local dialects - which he sings as if they were his own.Critics might charge Lekgoa with jumping on the Kwaito bandwagon - an accusation he vehemently denies."I'm not a white boy trying to speak Sotho, trying to get the rhythm.I have that.Its not something that happened overnight.It was a whole process through my life and I grew up with it.I did not wake up one day and say lets make a few bucks, lets make a kwaito album, let's make a gimmick.Its something that I felt all my life."
    His debut CD, entitled Basetsana- which means girls in Sotho, had the critics scrambling for superlatives.
    Lekgoa admits the huge acclaim might well have something to do with the fact that he is white.
    " I think first of all because I'm white- somebody told me recently when they switched on the TV and saw a performance of me on TV, they purely watched the performance because I was white.Only halfway through the song did they get into the song and performance bit.The initial reason why they were captured was this white guy doing kwaito."
    In a country where race is a highly sensitive issue - Lekgoa is obviously going to get some flak for singing in what is regarded as a black style.
    Popular local disc jockey, Phat Joe, whose programme appeals to a mostly black audience, doesn't believe Lekgoa has what it takes to truly breakthrough the barriers.
    "For me its not a breakthrough song in terms of, it doesn't have the sort of quality that would quantify it as a hit song especially for a station like Y-FM.The type of market that we target, it wouldn't be the sort of thing that we play in a club but I know maybe some of the songs really blow up big in areas outside of the urban areas and stuff like that but for me I don't think he's breakthrough enough to even cross-over"
    Fellow Kwaito musicians though, say Lekgoa can only be a good thing...bringing a wider audience to the music.
    "Whether or not he's a success, its a good thing that kwaito is expanding in that way and its touching other cultures and races."
    Lekgoa meanwhile is trying to rise above the racial divide - simply determined to leave a lasting impression on South African music.
    "Like Johnny Clegg, like PJ Powers, somebody else was put in the same position as them, who attempted to break down the bridges of this insanity of black music being black and white music being white, I think my music is accessible to white people as it is to black."
    The music buying public seem more than willing to give him and chance, and it seems apparent that kwaito has a serious following which could help bridge the racial divide that is still very much a part of life here more than 5 years after the end of apartheid.
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