South African Singer Thandiswa Mazwai - "Ibokwe" (information, video, & comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases a video of award winning South African singer Thandiswa Mazwai performing her song "Ibokwe" ("Goat" in the Xhosa language). Information about Thandiswa and reviews of this song and album are also included in this post.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Thandiswa Mazwai for her musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.

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INFORMATION ABOUT THANDISWA MAZWAI
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thandiswa_Mazwai
"Thandiswa Mazwai (born 31 March 1976) is a multi-award winning South African musician, and is also the lead vocalist and songwriter of Bongo Maffin.

Early life
Thandiswa was born in 1976 (the year of the Soweto Uprising). She grew up almost entirely in Soweto, Johannesburg, amidst the heavy apartheid township violence of the 1980s. ….

Early days and Bongo Maffin
Thandiswa…began her career in 1998 with Bongo Maffin, one of the pioneering bands of Kwaito. She became widely recognised as the voice of South Africa's conscious youth, their compositions consistently combining dance floor favourites with thought-provoking lyrics. They were invited to perform all over the world, and shared the stage with musical icons Stevie Wonder, the Marley clan, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Chaka Khan, Sean Paul, Steel Pulse and Skunk Anansie, among others. Their contribution to the South African musical cannon earned Bongo Maffin numerous awards, among them South African Music Awards, the Kora All Africa Music Awards, and the Metro FM Music Awards.

Going solo: Thandiswa
After five albums with Bongo Maffin she ventured onto a solo career. Her first project, Zabalaza (2004), reached double platinum status and won numerous awards, including a Kora award for Best African Female and four South African Music Awards, including Best Album. It was also nominated for the BBC Radio 3 Planet awards. Her second album, Ibokwe (2009), reached gold status in the first few weeks of its release and her live DVD, Dance of the Forgotten Free (2010), won Best Female Artist and Best Live DVD in 2011. The Guardian has called her "South Africa's finest female contemporary singer."[1]
Her music is often deeply political and her compositions include traditional Xhosa rhythms, Mbaqanga, reggae, kwaito and funk and jazz sounds...

Genres
Traditional
Funk
Jazz
House
Afrosoul"

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EXCERPTS FROM TWO REVIEWS OF THIS SONG AND ALBUM
These excerpted reviews are presented in no particular order. I've numbered them for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1:
From http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/v96m
BBC Review: [Thandiswa] Cements her position at the forefront of a new generation.
Michael Quinn 2009
"Going gold within six weeks of its release in her native South Africa, Thandiswa Mazwai’s Ibokwe forcefully cements her position at the forefront of a new generation extolling the Urban Zulu sound.

Noticeably stepping away from the ‘slowed-down garage’ kwaito stylings of 2004’s Zabalaza, this new offering takes the Johannesburg singer-songwriter deeper into traditional Zulu and Xhosa melodies and rhythms – inked in here by flexing percussion and anthemic chants – to map out a route from past to present signposted with borrowings from jazz, funk and contemporary African influences.

Marrying the personal and the political, Ibokwe (‘Goat’) seethes with an elegantly voiced amalgam of compassion and complaint...

Thandiswa has come far since she caught attention fronting Kwaito pioneers Bongo Maffin. On the evidence of Ibokwe, a long and illustrious road stretches out ahead of her. "

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From http://www.channel24.co.za/Music/AlbumReviews/Thandiswa-Mazwai-Ibokwe-20090216
Thandiswa Mazwai - Ibokwe
2009-02-16 13:11
Jean Barker
"The muscular femininity of this passionate Freedom Charter chick, whose voice is as soft as it is penetrating, links a story about the dizzying power of a spiritual calling ("Thongo Lam") to her struggle to deal with trouble without the last resort, ("Ibokwe"), to a prayer for a return to the first principles of our revolution ("Ngimkhonzile").

The album is deeply personal, but Thandiswa celebrates and interrogates not just her own Xhosa tradition, but also her pan-African roots, going beyond the obvious with recurring Maskandi themes on "Izolo", and reaches further north with the tropical rhythms of "Vana Vehu" to bring all South Africa together over our outrage at what so often divides us - crime and cruelty...

Listening to Thandiswa's Ibokwe is hearing your heritage being reborn in pop, witnessing tradition interrogated and reinvented, and rediscovering a critical pride in Africa and South Africa, that bridges the gap between disappointment and blind faith. It's also an intoxicating, heart-melting, bewitching musical experience that's as uncontrived as it's complex."

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Thandiswa Mazwai performs "Ibokwe" at Mandela Day 2009 from Radio City Music Hall



Mandela Day, Uploaded on Jul 30, 2009

Go to:
http://www.mandeladay.com/events/premium to see more clips and extra features
-snip-
Here's a comment from this video's discussion thread:
Ogomoditse Meyers, 201r
"It is common in most African cultures(the ones I know of) to slaughter an animal(goat in this case) to appease the ancestors when one encounters problems in life, she is singing about that but she is saying that she will fix things/some people up without slaughtering Ibokwe(goat). So watch out, she is not to be messed with!

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South African Singer Thandiswa Mazwai - "Ingoma" ("A Song") , with English lyrics

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on the African words "ngoma" and "ingoma".

This post showcases the contemporary South African love song "Ingoma" by Thandiswa Mazwai. "Ingoma means "song" in the Xhosa and Zulu languages. "Ingoma" is also used to classify the broad category of Zulu recreational dance.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the composer/s of this song and thanks to Thandiswa for her vocals, and thanks to all others who are featured in this recording, with special thanks to Hugh Masekela for the trumpet solo towards the end of this song. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube. Thanks also to the onscreen transcriber of this song (as found in Example #2 below). I'm not sure if that is the same person as the publisher of this song file on YouTube.

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SHOWCASE EXAMPLES:
Example #1:Thandiswa - Ingoma



African Jukebox Uploaded on Apr 5, 2009

Track from Thandiswa's newly released album, Ibokwe
-snip-
Here are two comments from this sound file's discussion thread:

Gilbert Onwu, 2014
"I love this beautiful song, wonderfully and exceptionally rendered by the amazing Thandiswa. One of my three most favoured SA artists. Thandiswa's range of voice is absolutely unbelievable as she caresses the song if I may put it that way. She comes across as a highly articulate and intelligent person,- I listened to her on more than one occasion on TV,- with a warm and endearing personality. I simply love the song. How I wish I could get an English translation! Gilbert Okeanonife Onwu"

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Vanessa D Sefatsa, 2014
"this is an African love song...loosely translated, she is comparing him to a song (ingoma), how addictive he is resembles a tune that will not leave her mind after she has played it the whole night. She then asks how she will be able to live without him, and says that she does not care what others say...he is like a song to her."

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Example #2: Thandiswa Mazwai - ingoma (a song) english lyrics



rockypart12345, Published on Oct 31, 2013

South Africa's finest female contemporary singer, multi award winning vocalist, song writer and producer. Her music is often deeply political and her compositions include traditional Xhosa rhythms, Mbaqanga, reggae, kwaito and funk and jazz sounds.

This track is from her second Album Ibokwe, its sung in Xhosa and English "ngoma" which means a song, enjoy!
-snip-
Click https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thandiswa_Mazwai for a biography of Thandiswa Mazwai.

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LYRICS NOTES
The lyrics in this post are largely from the onscreen text that is given in the sound file that is featured as Example #2 above. However, I took the liberty to correct some spelling ("your" corrected to "you're" and "rousing" to arousing"). I also corrected a word that may have been a typo ("gut" to "got").

I changed the word "felt" to "feel" because the present tense seems to fit the song better than the past tense. That changed tense is given in italics.

I added the word "a" to a line because I felt that it enhanced the meaning of that line. I also added words to the end of another line which be unsung but still understood. Those added words are given in brackets.

Significantly, I changed "will" to "would" in the line that appears onscreen as "What will I do without you?" I made that change because I believe that "would" fits the song better than "will".

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LYRICS: INGOMA
(as recorded by Thandiswa Mazwai)

You’re like a song that enthralls me throughout the night.
What will I do without you?

You’re a song.

I don’t care about the matters of this world.
Who says what.
I couldn’t care any less
Ooh I love my babe.

He’s like a song that enthralls me
Throughout the night.
What would I do without you?

You’re a song.
Sweetie, you’re [a] song to me.
Anytime of the day
Any day of the week
Any day of the year
Ooh you are arousing babe.
You’re a song that enthralls me
Throughout the night.
What would I do without you?

You’re a song.
You’re music to me, my beloved.
A relentless song
that never bores me to sleep.
A song I love anytime.
Song, you got into me
And made my body your home.
I feel you deep inside me.
Deep inside me.

Ooh you damn song
You’ve captured me and I’m reformed.
I can never feel anything like this [without you]
Ooh, my beloved, you’re a song.

A song that lives within my body.
A pleasing song.
A song that doesn’t get old.
A song that doesn’t get old.
You’re a song.

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