![]() “Via Katlehong honestly is a platform to offer solutions to a lot of the ills that have happened because of the history we’ve experienced as a globe,” she said. Lethabo Xulu, a local audience member, said its performances were a way to address societal problems. Via Katlehong is now also attracting attention at home. “There’s some sort of healing that happens when you are dancing,” she said. Check out Township Music from South Africa (Journey Through the Townships of Cape Town) by VARIOUS ARTISTS on Amazon Music. “For a child growing up exposed around those situations it is easy to get hooked on drugs or crime,” the 34-year-old dancer said, adding the backyard pantsula rehearsals led by his brother meant he had no time to get involved in illegal activities.įor other troupe members like 33-year-old Thulisile Binda, being able express herself through the dance has provided a way to deal with life’s challenges. In South Africa: Music Township music, a lively form of music that flourished in the townships during the apartheid era, has also been popular within the country and abroad. It helped him stay out of trouble while growing up in Katlehong, where riots against the apartheid government were a regular feature of life. Now, Qofela’s dance troupe, Via Katlehong, wants to drive a revival of the style, and has taken the dance to the global stage with shows in France, the Netherlands and Portugal.įor Qofela, too, pantsula was more than just entertainment. Immigrants from Malawi developed the kwela sound by fusing Malawian music with marabi. Now in its 6th year, Soul Safari is proud to present. It later enjoyed popularity among South Africans of different races, but waned somewhat as modern dance styles gained prominence. The principal genres of township music are mbaqanga, kwela, and marabi.Marabi evolved from jazz influence in the 1920s. Soul Safari started as a blog to showcase the music of Africa with a strong emphasis on South Africa. ![]() Pantsula’s choreography, including movements mimicking sweeping, playing dice and saluting, meditated on Black South African’s everyday experiences and provided a code that performers could use to communicate in a language state police could not understand. It became a vehicle for social and political expression and resistance. Township Jazz is any of various music genres created by Bantu peoples living in poor, racially segregated urban areas of South Africa during the 20th century. The quick-stepping, energetic and syncopated dance originated among Black youth living in townships like Qofela’s Katlehong under the apartheid government’s system of racial segregation, which ended in 1994. Now, he is helping to revive the dance style and take it on to the global stage. Townships are places allocated under laws for the exclusive habitation of individuals categorized as blacks. JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Thato Qofela first performed ‘pantsula’, a symbol of Black South African culture and resistance to the apartheid regime, in his childhood backyard. The music styles were numerous in the townships.
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