Take a trip back to the fifties

The music of the Manhattan Brothers, mbaqanga and, of course, the penny whistle speak of the shebeens of the 1950s. Kwela Bafana will take the audience back to those times.
THE vibrancy of the 1950s – the era of kwela, jazz, tap dance and apartheid - is brought to life in a musical called Kwela Bafana.

JiveBringing the 1950s to lifeSet in a 1950s shebeen, this soulful production promises to have Joburg audiences tapping their feet and wishing they had brought along their dancing shoes. It will run at the Victory Theatre in Houghton, for three nights a week from 2 November to 10 December.

The musical is directed by Sibikwa Arts Centre founders Phyllis Klotz and Smal Ndaba, with musical direction by Themba Mkhize and dance choreographed by Todd Twala.

According to Ndaba, Kwela Bafana is about the jazz music of the Manhattan Brothers, a popular South African group, mixed with mbaqanga, that distinctive South African sound with its rural Zulu roots, which was played in the shebeens of the time.

These shebeens were places where people could gather and chat, discuss their problems and talk about the horrors of life during apartheid. There is still a lot of nostalgia for the sense of community that abounded.

Of course, no musical trip to the 1950s would be complete without the penny whistle, or “kwela”, the defining sound of the era. The name “kwela” came from the Zulu word for “get up” and the police vans were called “kwela-kwela”.

These penny whistles were used by young men on street corners to warn revellers in the shebeens of the arrival of the police. The shebeens were filled with liveliness, alcohol and music that kept people’s hopes alive, allowing them some respite from apartheid’s adversity and forced removals.

Kwela Bafana is brought to life by Boy Ngwenya, who was in the original production and Nkosana Xulu on penny whistle.

Velephi KhumaloStar attraction: Singer Velephi KhumaloXulu started playing the penny whistle in 1998, after being introduced to the instrument by the late Aaron “Big Voice Jack” Lerole. He still plays with his band, Shukuma. The rest of the team is made up of award-winning performers Dumisani Mhlanga, Mduduzi Mkhethi, Andrie Mbali and Siphiwe Nkabinde.

Music
Musical director Mkhize is one of the country’s most respected and multi-talented musicians. He has two South African Music Awards and a Daimler Chrysler Award, given in 2001, under his belt. He arranged and composed the music for the opening ceremony of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the World Cup the following year, and has composed music for several films, including Soweto Green and Zulu Love Letter.

Twala’s musical theatre career spans nearly four decades. He has travelled the globe working on numerous major productions and brings the 1950s to life with vibrant movements. The award-winning actress, Velephi Khumalo, is one of Kwela Bafana’s main attractions.

Khumalo was involved in the Lion King production in Germany, where she provided and recorded the vocals for the album, which she sang in German. She also won the best supporting actress for her role in the television soapie, Muvhango, in 2005.

Born in 1935, Ngwenya is the elder in the production. In his time, he was a member of the four-person harmony group, the Woody Woodpeckers.

The performers will be supported by the Kwela Bafana band: led by Ngwenya on keyboards, Lunga Mgcina on saxophone, Sabelo Masondo on bass, Wandile Molefe on piano, and Siphiwe Kubheka on drums.

The Sibikwa Players will perform a preview show at the Diepkloof Hall in Soweto on 26 October at 12pm. Entrance for the preview is free of charge but Sibikwa has asked for donations of clothing for adults and children to be made for patients at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital burn and high care unit.

The Victory Theatre is located in Houghton on 105 Louis Botha Avenue, Houghton Estate. Tickets are available from Computicket or by calling the Victory Theatre on 011 728 9603.

Prices range from R95 to R223 excluding a meal, and from R175 to R300 including a meal. Pensioner and student tickets are R60, and there is a 10 percent discount for block bookings of 10 or more people.