Ray Phiri and Stimela performing at Orbit Jazz Club and Bistro in Braamfontein.
Image: Matthews Baloyi | File
AS the August winds died down and the wild bush flowers that had threatened to eclipse the sun and plunge us into grey gloomy skies, at a time when the geopolitical tectonic plates are shifting in erratic and unpredictable patterns, as tariff waves sweep across the globe visiting friend and foe with equal stunning ferocity — missiles in the form of one neighbour to another exchanged as Christmas gifts, borders blockaded to starve children and erase a nation.
An Old familiar voice rises above the deafening noise of a world in chaos; it rises to a crashing crescendo that silences the eerie din of strife, greed, empirical force and destruction laced with crippling corruption, graft, kleptocracy and kakistocracy.
A song designed to celebrate the trilogy of a man in his full might as a son, a father and a husband — a powerful celebration of manhood, masculinity and his role as a sheltering canopy. “Yonke ingane iyamdinga ubaba." The backing voices incessantly yet sonorously etch the message in the minds of all deadbeat fathers. A beautiful, simple message packaged in good music, ala the Slow Train Traditional sound.
A haunting narration of the pre-'94 political strife in South Africa and the euphoria of freedom achieved post ’94 which gradually gets eroded and replaced by apathy, dreams deferred and grinding hopelessness. This may sound like a lamentation or even an elegy until, upon close scrutiny of the lyric the call to unite and claim back the people’s aspirations from greedy thieves masquerading as custodians of the old PUBLIC GOOD.
After a series of deaths of the original prophets-in-song of the People’s Band from the late 70s to the 2020s, it is not surprising that a song such as this is included in this album. It is the cry of a man whose only constant companion is his tears. It is a cry from the youngsters; Ray, Mnca, Lloyd, and Nana Coyote have passed the heavy baton of keeping the Slow Train Movement chug-chugging. The raw pain is cutting through. Discussing this song with Sam Ndlovu, the composer and lead vocalist, he explained in a cracked voice this way: “When does it stop – is a dirge from the bottom of my Soul, Budha." No further explanations needed.
In true Stimela rub-a-dub mbaqanga song and dance style, this song, while packing a punch in a universal truth form that Africa is one regardless of imaginary lines and broken fences, is all about rhythm and guitar romance with a strong overlay of backing voices that triggers even the unborn to kick in their cosy womb. It is a clarion call for Africa to come together to find African solutions for African problems. This song couldn’t have come at a better time. The energy in Sahel countries of Africa and the BRICS movement rising as an alternative to the unipolar world order immediately come to mind as you engage with the lyrics. The song warns about institutions such as USAID and its tentacles in the form of sleeper agents pretending to be NGOs all over Africa, without naming names; it coaxes you to see what the World Bank and the IMF are to Africa.
This is a respite in the album with hard-hitting lyrical content. This song is a break from the mind-boggling message the album conveys. The title is self-explanatory; the boys were engaging with their instruments of trade, exercising their expressions in pentatonic scales, arpeggios, guitars and keys on an African canvas.
Ixilongo Ixilongo is a ballad treated with surprisingly delicate nuances that go straight to the heart. It’s a duel and Romeo & Juliet affair of voices between Sam Ndlovu and Unathi Msengana on lead vocals in a love affair dripping from their voices on the backdrop of backing choral voices that takes you to the church even when you are physically at a nightclub. However, this song is multi-dimensional in only the way Stimela can juxtapose illusions. While on the surface the song is about two lovers that profess their consuming love for one another, new perspectives are emerging that this song is about the rupture that religious zealots, numerologists, prophets and theology scholars are warning is beginning on 23rd September 2022. Is it a prophecy or just two lovers drunk in love? One thing I can say about the song is that it’s orgasmic. I suspect this might be a runaway hit.
It wouldn’t be Stimela if they did not serve us a bit of comedy and humour in a fine dining 7-course affair. Juju invokes the spirit of songs like Who’s fooling a Who, which featured the late Teaspoon Ndelu. It is about this man who has been hit hard by melancholy and love nostalgia. His longing for his distant lover has reached physical, psychological and emotional disaster mode that medical doctors and preachers can’t quell to a point where those around him call the cops on him to be taken to a mental health institution for professional intervention. He is stunned as he sees the police van, he can’t understand how the police got involved in his love matters. Only then does he realise that love can be a form of madness to a love-struck bloke, hehehe!!!
Kudos to Chikapa, Mnca, Lloyd and Jabu for having had the foresight to carefully select the next generation squad of talented youngsters to groom and pass the Stimela baton to before they exited the stage. This album is a treat as much as it is a promise of hope to the multitudes of Stimela followers and lovers out there. To those who have been inconsolably hit by the departures of our idols, know that they did not just “up and go"; far from it, they left us with a garden of seedlings that have grown into full bloom. They must be smiling from above as they see their investment in young talent keep their legacy alive. God knows it has not been easy for them as they lost younger next-wave players like Lindelani Mathonsi and Bafana Mazibuko, who were their prodigies. Thanks, Ntokozo, Sam, and Mpho.
As the Slow Train slithers out of the consuming storms, leaving in its rearview mirror painful experiences, tears and grief, it sheds its parched, callous, welt-striped hide to morph into a beautiful bloom that emits hope and love to the Stimela die-hards and dyed-in-the-wool extended family.
As it was in the genesis of the band in 1979 when the heavens brought together the best from Mbombela City and the best from the East of City Jo’burg (East Rand) into a formidable crew that would be charged with the momentous task of evangelising messages and mantras of enlightenment to the people, the Slow Train, as if by fate, has again re-visited Mbombela City and East Rand for the assignment of keeping the train moving.
Mpho Styles Kodisang hails from Vosloorus in the East Rand, a town that gave Stimela the inimitable Lloyd Lellosa, whose keys were to be the pillar that Stimela's sound pivoted on for decades. By coincidence or divine design, Mpho is on keys on every song of this album, painting the familiar tapestry Voslo gave us for decades. Some call him a piano prodigy; we call him ‘Syles’ because that’s what he exhibits as he traverses the ebony & ivory keys to make amazing joyful noise. Ladies & Gentlemen, receive Mpho!
* Content supplied by The African Storyteller.
** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, IOL, or Independent Media.