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Wednesday, November 16, 2022

Five Videos Of South African Apostolic Choirs: The Twelve Apostles Church In Christ (TTACC)



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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases five videos of The Twelve Apostles Church In Christ (TTACC also given as TACC) a South African based Apostolic denomination.

Brief information about The Twelve Apostles Church In Christ is included in this post along with my editorial notes.

The content of this post is presented for cultural and religious purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are featured in these videos. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/11/black-faced-minstrelsy-in-south-africas.html for a related pancocojams post entitled "Black Faced Minstrelsy In South Africa's Influence On The Custom Of Isicathamiya Groups Wearing White Gloves And Sometimes Making The "Jazz Hands" Gesture."

Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/11/five-videos-of-south-african-apostolic.html for the related pancocojams post entitled "Five Videos Of South African Apostolic Choirs: The Twelve Apostles Church In Trinity (TTACT)"

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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
In addition to these videos' music, I'm particularly interested in documenting the custom of choir members wearing white gloves or wearing another colored gloves. I posit that this custom of wearing gloves as part of the choir's attire has its source in South Africa's Isicathamiya choral groups and the Isicathamiya choral groups got the custom of wearing white gloves from the United States black faced minstrel groups (and from other minstrel groups (including a Black group known as the Virginia Jubilee Singers) who toured South Africa in the 19th and early 20th century.

The choral singing still of this Apostolic denomination reminds me of Isicathamiya choral singing.

I'm also interested in documenting the choirs' dancing/marching movements as well as their extensive use of hand gestures while they sing. These characteristics also remind me of Isicathamiya choral groups. Although I'm certainly no expert on Isicathamiya music or on Zulu culture, it appears to me that the dance movements and hand gestures that both of these vocal music groups performed in the past and still perform now come from traditional Zulu culture (Think of Ladysmith Black Mambazo as an example of  an Isicathamiya music group although that group is much smaller than Isicathamiya groups and didn't/ doesn't wear the suits and gloves that Isicathamiya groups wore and still wear).

I'm curious about the hand gestures that singers in both these types of South African music use. Unfortunately, I haven't found any information online about what any of these hand gestures mean.   Is performing imitative gestures while singing traditional in Zulu and/or other South African ethnic groups?   

Are the gestures that resemble "jazz hands" / "spirit fingers" from traditional Zulu culture or from United States minstrel groups that toured South Africa (and elsewhere) in the late 19th century and the early 20th century?*

Hopefully, people who are knowledgeable about these subjects will share some information here or elsewhere online. Doing so would be greatly appreciated.

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SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE TWELVE APOSTLES CHURCH IN CHRIST 
The history of the Twelve Apostles Church In Christ is difficult to follow without talking about politics, race, religious schisms, and more.

Here's a quote from https://twelveapostlescc.org/ 
“Twelve Apostles Church In Christ is an independent Apostolic Church with its Head Administration office in East London, South Africa. 

Membership is well in access of 4 million…Due to the political legacy of the previous (white) regime, the members are predominately black Africans.”...

Read https://twelveapostlescc.org/history/  and  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Apostolic_Church 
for the complicated history of this Christian denomination. 

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SHOWCASE VIDEOS

Excerpt for Showcase Video #1, these videos are numbered for referencing purposes only and are given in chronological order with the oldest videos given first.

My brief notes about the choirs'  hand gestures may be included after these videos.

DISCLAIMER: These descriptions of the attire for TTACC members only refers to the videos that are showcased in this post. Members of this denomination may wear other attire on other occasions. 

I have included a few notes in this post about some of the hand gestures and dance movements the singers did in those showcased videos. 

 Additions and corrections are welcome for all of these editorial notes.


SHOWCASE VIDEO # 2: TTACC 2019 Thanksgiving Evangelical brothers

 

Ncedo Mbini, Aug 14, 2019

Evangelical brothers kwiThanksgiving 11.08.2019.. Abavangeli bakaBaba
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The men wear identical royal blue suit jackets, white shirt, white pants, and black shoes. The men wear a royal blue tie, white gloves, and black dress shoes.

In the beginning of the video the men bend down with the fingers of both of their hands wiggling, the men slowly raise their hands in their air above their head with the fingers still wiggling. 

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #3: TTACCSO UNIZULU - Ganda Ganda



TTACCSO TV, 
Premiered Feb 17, 2020

SHOWCASE VIDEO #4:  TACC 2020 Opening Bizana IMPM - abamazanga ubaba

Thethelela Khwatha, Mar 13, 2020

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SHOWCASE VIDEO #5: TACC Mothers' Worship Medley by Mother Lulu Matyumza, Mother Mabhola and Mother Sinama



Thethelela Khwatha,  Oct 14, 2021

Thursday service
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The women don't wear any gloves. They wear a white blouse and blue skirt with a white scarf over their hair.
 
Notice the woman rubbing the palms of her hands together than clapping her hands around .022 in this video. I've noticed that hand gesture in videos of the South African music form known as "amagwijo" ("igwijo" / "gwijo").

Also, throughout this video notice the women raising one arm over their head and wiggling that hand (not waving that hand from side to side).

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