Photo Credits: Image Courtesy Of Calabash Music
Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens
In 1965, Rupert Bopape, one of South Africa's great black producers, discovered a group of young domestic workers from Pretoria. The Makhona Tsohle Band — the name meant "jacks of all trades" — played electric township pop with the sweetness of kwela and the drive of American R&B. Muscular bass lines pioneered by the country's first great electric bassist, Joseph Makwela, synched up with sharp offbeat snare hits to nail the band's fierce grooves to the floor, while guitar leads by innovator Marks Mankwane wove joyful abandon overhead. But the band needed singers, a robust vocal outfit to tame the music's feisty bucking. Bopape had produced the country's top-selling vocal group, The Dark City Sisters. He took one of their guest male vocalists, Simon "Mahlathini" Nkabinde and teamed him with a new singing, dancing female troupe, The Mahotella Queens.
The bass "groaner," Simon Nkabinde, clinched the act. People called him Mahlathini, "jungle on his head," as a reference to his aloof, commanding presence, his link with rural traditions, and his unbelievably loud, low voice. Some who heard him sing and saw his stealthy warrior's dance assumed that he had supernatural powers. In fact, he was a veteran of church choirs and of a popular township group Alexander Black Mambazo, in which his brother Zeph was a leading member. Rounded out by the lush, sunny harmonies of the Mahotella Queens, and by their endlessly inventive dance steps, the resulting supergroup became a sensation throughout Southern Africa. They toured widely, packing stadiums wherever they went.
Imitators sprang up everywhere and the new mbaqanga sound flourished. This was music for the workers, new and exciting, but loudly affirming tradition. The name mbaqanga gets various translations — porridge stirred up hot in a hurry, or fried dumplings heavy as the music's beat. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens called their take on the style, mqashiyo, meaning "to bounce," a reference to the Queen's distinctive dance moves. Many of the recordings from this seminal period of township pop are now available, notably within the fine series of Earthworks compilations collectively called The Indestructible Beat of Soweto.
During the late '70s and early '80s, soul music and disco overtook the South African pop scene. The Mahotella Queens took eight years off to raise families while a group of understudies performed and recorded using their name. But when the kids were grown, three of the original queens, Hilda Buthelezi, Nobesuthu Mbadu, and Mildred Mangxola, went on stage again.
In the wake of Paul Simon's Grammy-winning 1986 Graceland album and the subsequent international tour, South Africans discovered a renewed interest in the older township styles, and the world was primed to find out what they had been missing. Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, backed by most of the original Makhona Tsohle Band, then embarked on an aggressive international touring schedule that continued until the deaths of guitarist Marks Mankwane in 1998 and Mahlathini in 1999.
A number of post-reunion recordings came out, most notably 1989's Paris—Soweto and 1992's Mbaqanga. While other African pop groups constantly revamp their sounds to keep up with the latest trends, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens found strength in sticking to the integrity of their classic sound, which remains fresh after three decades.
In 1994, the group recorded an album in honor of their 30th anniversary. In one song there, The Queens exhorted young South Africans to pick up the mbaqanga torch and carry the music into the future. "It's been almost three decades," they sang. "We need the young generation to follow us." Answering that call literally, a group of seven-, eight-, and nine-year-old South Africans, calling themselves Little Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, were soon thrilling audiences with a full-costume, spitting image duplication of the original group's legendary stage show. During their 30th year, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens were pleased to perform with their young impersonators.
Following the deaths of Marks Mankwane and Mahlathini, the Mahotella Queens regrouped with younger musicians and released an excellent album called Sebai Bai in 2000. The Mahotella Queens remain both cherished survivors of a great musical age, and also an inspirational act on today's international African music scene.
– Banning Eyre, Courtesy Afropop Worldwide: www.afropop.org
