Majuba – ‘doves’ (Zulu) ¹.

Mbaqanga – ‘African maize bread’ (Zulu) consumed by working people – contextually symbolizing the worker’s daily bread, the ‘homely cultural sustenance of the  townships’ ².

Msakazo – ‘Broadcast’ (Zulu)

Simanje-manje – ‘Now now’ (Zulu)

Mgqashiyo – ‘To bounce’ (Zulu)

Marabi, kwela, American jazz and big band swing, American blues, tsaba-tsaba. 

Depending on historical context or even individual preference, the terms ‘mbaqanga,’ ‘African Jazz,’ ‘township jazz’ and ‘township jive’ might be used interchangeably to reference the same massive and diverse catalogue of South African popular music, or they might be used independently to identify separate genres within this group. The all-night concert-and-dance parties that helped to popularize marabi and tsaba-tsaba also created the perfect social atmosphere for fusing marabi and American jazz and swing influences into a ‘homegrown’ style of African jazz and pop music, which would later become mbaqanga ⁵. However, the term ‘mbaqanga’ itself would also become a colloquial term for a range of styles that have seemingly nothing to do with South African jazz, American jazz, or even the grassroots marabi and tsaba-tsaba styles that preceded these. From The World of South African Music by Christine Lucia (p347):  

“‘African jazz’ was the term most commonly used in the 1940s and early 1950s to describe the fusion of American big-band swing with local styles such as marabi and tsaba-tsaba by South Africa swing bands. The other commonly used term, mbaqanga, now risks confusion with a different style of the same name that emerged during the 1960s.”  

Even more confusingly, the term ‘African jazz’ as a style is also sometimes used to describe marabi, tsaba-tsaba, and kwela – perhaps because they all possess some elements found in both traditional South African and American jazz music, such as cyclically-repeated melodic motifs and call and response interchanges between instruments and vocalists. In this usage, ‘African jazz’ might be more accurately reworded as ‘African-ized jazz,’ meaning a group of South African musical styles that share the aforementioned jazz-like qualities. However, the most consistent use and interpretation of ‘African jazz’ throughout South Africa’s musical history seems to reference a genre of music that, while certainly influenced by marabi, tsaba-tsaba and American jazz, was wholly distinct from any of these genres with respect to style and historical chronology.

 

EVOLUTION OF ‘AFRICAN JAZZ’ TERMS (FROM 1940-1970)

Popular South African jazz first took shape in the 1940s as a blend of marabi and imported American big-band swing, inspired by popular demand for marabi music rearranged to be played by swing bands in Johannesburg’s dancehalls ⁶. This South African-American hybrid jazz form quickly took off, particularly because it allowed black South Africans to dance the Jitterbug (which was popular around the world as the result of American film and music imports) to familiar African tunes “re-grooved” to an American swing beat ³. This American swing rhythmic element is what mainly separated this new ‘African Jazz’ style (initially dubbed ‘majuba’ after the popular Jazz Maniacs song that set the tone for this genre) from marabi and tsaba tsaba, which are otherwise all founded on the same repeated three-chord sequence. The repeated three-chord sequence element that was common to marabi, tsaba tsaba and majuba also differentiated South African jazz-influenced styles from their American counterparts like swing and jazz, which utilized longer and more complex chord progressions  ⁷. Majuba was particularly well exemplified by Sonny Groenewald’s Jazz Revellers, Ntemi Piliso and his Alexandra All-Star Band, Peter Rezant’s Merry Blackbirds, and most notably Solomon ‘Zuluboy’ Cele’s Jazz Maniacs. The Jazz Maniacs in particular were credited with being the first to bring a more “Africanized” sound to the American swing style that was popular in urban South Africa at the time – most likely because Cele was a marabi pianist before he formed the Jazz Maniacs in the early 1950s ¹.         

The marabi and American swing-influenced ‘majuba’ style continued to see popularity well into the 1950s. Towards the end of the decade, African jazz as a genre began to fork into two separate trajectories: one that followed a more Westernized type of jazz (exemplified by the Jazz Epistles and the Blue Notes), and another that would lead to sax jive. Beginning in the 1950s, African jazz picked up the name ‘mbaqanga,’ – a term for a traditional Zulu dumpling or bread initially coined by Michael Xaba, who played trumpet alongside Cele in the Jazz Maniacs. ‘Mbaqanga,’ using its most literal translation, was originally intended to portray this music as being “both the Africans’ own, the homely cultural sustenance of the townships, and the popular working-class source of the musician’s ‘daily bread.’ ” ². From this point forward, ‘mbaqanga’ as a term would be used interchangeably for at least three types of music that seem stylistically unrelated – to this day the word ‘mbaqanga’ might be better thought of as a colloquial term for ‘South African pop music,’ rather than an identifying term for a specific genre or style.

Beginning in the early 1950s, ‘mbaqanga’ was used as a synonym  for ‘African jazz’ ⁸  or ‘township jazz’ ², a la the music of the Jazz Maniacs and Harlem Swingsters as well as vocal groups such as the African Inkspots and the Manhattan Brothers (known for adding elements of kwela, rural African melodies and 1950s-era American jazz to their tunes) ^2,5. Secondly, beginning in the latter half of the decade, musical elites of the South African jazz domain began using the term ‘mbaqanga’ in a pejorative sense, essentially using the same literal translation in Zulu to instead mean ’homegrown’ in the sense of lacking sophistication. This derisive use of ‘mbaqanga’ seemed to especially apply to sax jive, which was initially dismissed by musical elites for being a watered-down or cheaply imitative interpretation of jazz. Around this same time, a more simplified version of African jazz, sometimes referred to as ‘msakazo’ (meaning ‘broadcast’), emerged alongside sax jive. Msakazo was known for being strategically engineered to maximize radio airplay, molded in commercial recording studio environments to adhere to a “common denominator of urban African taste” ^2,9.  

Mbaqanga then took on a third meaning in the 1960s to refer to a whole new style of pop music that had almost no resemblance to the African jazz styles that preceded it ¹⁰. Though the genre technically shares some of the same marabi and tsaba-tsaba roots as precedent African jazz styles, the rest of the elements are so different that the genres might not audibly appear related at all. 1960s-era mbaqanga has been described as a marriage of tsaba-tsaba, marabi and ‘urban neo-traditional music,’ meaning that it used instruments like electric guitars, violins, accordions, saxophones and drums. 1960s-era mbaqanga was also significantly a product of the concurrent commercial recording industry boom in South Africa, and may have been strategically mislabeled by record companies as “mbaqanga” to help sell the genre to locals ⁹. Leading into the 1970s, mbaqanga (arguably in its last stage of development, and therefore often considered the de facto manifestation of the term) was characterized by a lead guitar part, staggered piano and accordion parts playing a characteristic F C G# C ostinato line ¹¹.

Beginning in the 1960s, the non-jazz form of mbaqanga led to an offshoot of pop music called simanje manje (or “vocal mbaqanga”). Simanje manje was fundamentally a combination of jive-influenced vocals and 1960s style ‘pop’ mbaqanga, with the addition of a lead male “rasping bass groan” part and a five-part female backing chorus. Music producer Rupert Bopape notably helped procure simanje manje’s commercial success, mainly through his work with singer Simon ‘Mahlathini’ Nkabinde ¹⁰. Simon ‘Mahlathini’ Nkabinde was influenced by Big Voice Jack Lerole and southern Bantu indigenous singing styles to develop his signature deep groaning “goat voice,” which set a stylistic precedent for simanje-manje groups that followed ¹⁰. Simanje manje in its own right continued to see popularity into the 1970s and beyond, but it also produced offshoot genres like mgqashiyo and ‘mbaqanga soul.’ Mgqashiyo, characterized by a heavier “bouncy” rhythm, also featured a groaning bass lead and five-part close harmony section, with the addition of synthesizers and a loud plectrum electric bass. Notable mgqashiyo artists included Mahlathini and his queens, the Makhona Tsohle Band, and Qhudeni (‘Rooster Boys’). In the 1970s, groups like the Soul Brothers (one of South Africa’s most well known pop bands) as well as Steve Kekana, Kori Moraba, Babsy Mlangeni, Sox, and Mpharanyana popularized ‘mbaqanga soul’, sometimes also called soul or soul jive, which combined mbaqanga with American ballad-style-soul elements. Mbaqanga soul used the same instrumentation and basic structure as simanje manje, but replaced the “goat voice” lead and female chorus with just an all-male chorus, who sang with a distinct, “quavering” vocal style (pioneered by the Soul Brothers). Later on, mbaqanga soul would also feature a Hammond organ part, often coupled with a Leslie cabinet speaker, which further emulated American soul imports ^9,13 .  

Confusingly, sometimes any of these terms (African jazz, township jazz, msakazo, mbaqanga) were used interchangeably with the term jive to mean the same thing, with specific examples. For example, sax jive was often used to refer to a type of instrumental form of 1950s African jazz featuring a sax part in place of a vocalist and a horn section in place of backing vocals ¹⁴. Spokes Mashiyane, who was previously a penny whistle player famous for popularizing the genre, took up saxophone beginning in the 1950s and is credited with popularizing sax jive ¹⁰.  

Another subset of African jazz, sometimes thrown under the same “mbaqanga” umbrella, is 1950s South African vocal jive music. Inspired by American film and music imports featuring female vocalists in leading roles, this type of African jazz was pioneered by Dorothy Masuka, who was the first of the South African ‘songbirds’ to achieve success as a recording artist. Sometimes referred to as “Masuka music,” it can be described as a lyrical combination of American blues and swing jazz (which comes through in a four-on-the-floor or back-beat emphasized swing rhythm, as well as a walking bass pattern) with South African tsaba-tsaba ^4,15 . Masuka has also personally cited the descending slide singing style of amaZulu sangomas as a stylistic influence ⁴. Jive music often strategically disguised messages of social and political commentary under the cloak of cryptic lyricism, allowing the music to evade apartheid-enforced censorship radar ⁴. Other well known vocal jive singers have included Marjorie Pretorious, ‘South Africa’s Ella Fitzgerald’ of the Merry Blackbirds and De Pitch Black Follies, Dolly Rathebe who toured with the African Inkspots, Harlem Swingsters, and Manhattan Stars, Snowy Radebe, also of the Merrry Blackbirds and De Pitch Black Follies, Emily Kwenane of the Jazz maniacs, and, of course, Miriam Makeba  ¹⁵.

 

AFRICAN JAZZ IN THE 1940s AND 1950s

The transition from the 1940s to 1950s in South Africa saw the advancement of a home-grown South African commercial music industry, which in turn chaperoned a stylistic evolution from vaudeville, marabi and tsaba-tsaba to African jazz and its various subgenres and offshoots. On the other hand, this period also coincided with the destruction of Sophiatown, a rise in organized crime and gang activity, and the full crystallization of the apartheid regime and its various regulatory and propaganda practices, which would wreak havoc on black entertainment culture and communities for decades to follow.  

Beginning in the 1950s, organized crime began to infiltrate nearly every facet of day-to-day life for black South Africans, and entertainment culture (by way of being practically centered around venues that provided liquor and entertainment) was particularly impacted by its spread. This effect was perhaps most strongly put into play following the emergence of tsotsis – networks of gangs of young, urban-born Africans who could speak English and Afrikaans and revelled in American slang and fashion (exemplified by major tsotsi gang names like the Americans, as well as the Green Arrows, who were considered the major gang stronghold to follow the Blue Nines). Tsotsis, like most South Africans, appreciated mbaqanga as a symbolic representation of South African indigenous pride combined with a Westernized sonic aesthetic of modernization; however, this enthusiasm also led tsotsi gangs to strategically engender rivalries between bands, such that tsotsis ultimately controlled nightly mbaqanga line-ups at virtually all of the major (and minor) venues ². A fear of gang activity and related violence at concerts halls led to a major drop in attendance among working and middle class concert-goers, which led to financial consequences for venues and musicians when shows continuously failed to make profit margins ². The resulting fallout from gang-motivated violence around shows, coupled with the destruction of the Western Areas and Sophiatown and the passing of regulations forbidding Africans from attending any venues where liquor was served, contributed to an overall decline in big-band concert attendance ⁵.    

The increasing violence and oppression associated with the live music scene led to the diversion of black music culture into the white-controlled recording industry, where it was molded into a commercially commodity and essentially sold back to black consumers at a profit to white record label owners. During the 1950s especially, mbaqanga songwriting became a popular (and really the only) option for musicians without formal training or literacy, though both working-class, uneducated as well as middle-class, educated performers had to rely on white producers and managers if they wanted a competitive advantage in the music industry ¹⁶ . At this time, record labels like Gallo and Troubador were able to put out mbaqanga records at stunningly high volumes. However, despite the popularity and associated record sales of the most well-known mbaqanga tracks, the fact that black musicians could neither join existing unions nor form their own meant they were pretty much at the whim of the record labels when it came to receiving royalties, which often did not come through at all. For example, Spokes Mashiyane, a highly prolific pennywhistle-player and saxophonist, and really one of South Africa’s most well-respected musicians to date, earned between just $7 and $50 a piece on tracks that brought in six-figure-clearing revenues to his record label ¹⁶ .   

 

AFRICAN JAZZ IN THE 1960s

The destruction of Sophiatown in 1955, which marked the end of the ‘Sophiatown Renaissance,’ precluded a mass exodus of jazz talents out of South Africa’s and overseas to the US and Europe ¹⁰. The destruction of Sophiatown, as well as increased regulatory pressure to keep black performance culture out of Johannesburg’s city center, culminated in Soweto’s emergence as a new major hub for black music culture to thrive ¹⁷. Radio Bantu, which was created by NP-controlled government in 1960, continued to play an important and paradoxical role in promoting the ‘separate development’ protocol throughout the decade. The station’s agenda included separate programming in the forms of Radio Zulu, Radio Xhosa and Radio Sesotho, and aimed to prevent black and white cultural mixing (as well as mixing within South African tribes and other non-white racial demographics, like East Indian and Asian) under the disingenuous guise of promoting pride in indigenous culture. The Radio Bantu agenda, which also included specific directives such as forbidding black vocalists from singing in English, actually had the resultant effect of stoking cultural pride amongst black communities, and led to a greater trend in South African black music from the more American-sounding 1940s big band swing to distinctly South African mbaqanga sound that had achieved popularity in the 1960s  ¹⁰.     

 

AFRICAN JAZZ IN THE 1970s

This decade is sometimes referred to as the ‘dark 1970s’ when describing South Africa’s black music culture, due to the apartheid-perpetuating governmental practices that led to an active suppression of black urban performance culture. By 1970, there was not a single remaining legally-operating venue in Johannesburg for black performers, and music education was completely removed from the government-enforced Bantu public education curriculum. By this time, black music culture was almost completely confined to the white-operated and profiting record industry, as well as the government-controlled, heavily-censored radio broadcasting sector  ¹⁸ . Besides forcibly restricting black music culture to a white-controlled domain, the government-dictated pass restrictions and educational cutbacks for black South Africans meant an almost complete obliteration in urban street music culture, which was once responsible for breeding novel grassroots music movements like mbube, maskanda and pennywhistle kwela. Though black music was still being created, it was pretty much only happening in the white-controlled ecosystems of the commercial recording studio industry   ¹⁸.   

Two examples of the American-swing influenced ‘majuba’ form of South African jazz (the latter being an example of a South African melody adapted to an American swing groove, which made it easier for people to dance the Jitterbug to their favorite local tunes) ³:

African Quavers – “Majuba” (1953):

African Quavers – “Tomatie Sous” (1953):

Dorothy Masuka – “Mhlaba” – An example of vocal jive (exemplifying the use of strategically cryptic jive lyrics) ⁴:

Spokes Mashiyane – “Zoo Lake Jive” (1958) – An example of sax jive:

Mahlathini And The Mahotella Queens – “Mbaqanga” (1991) – An example of the bouncy mgqashiyo style:

Allen, Lara. 1993. “Pennywhistle Kwela : A Musical, Historical and Sociopolitical analysis.” University of Natal, Durban: Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. p.21 ⁶, 22 ³, 25 ⁷

Allen, Lara. “Vocal Jive and Political Identity in the 1950’s.” In Cristine Lucia (Ed.), The World of South African Music. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2005. Print. p.308 ⁴

Ballantine, Christopher. Marabi Nights: Jazz, ‘Race’ and Society in Early Apartheid South Africa, 2nd Edition. South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2012. Print. ⁸

Coplan, David. In Township Tonight! South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre, 2nd Edition. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2008. Print. p.173 ¹⁵, 198 ¹, 200 ², 203 ⁵, 205 ¹⁶, 228 ¹⁰, 233 ¹⁷, 237 ¹¹, 251 ¹³, 260 ¹⁸

Meintjes, Louise. Sound of Africa! Making Music Zulu in a South African Studio. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2003. Print. p.34 ¹⁴, 135 ⁹,