When I decided to start this category on Howzit-HongKong.com, I spent some time wondering just where to start.  Not wanting to make it an academic topic, I decided to just start somewhere and see how it develops, and where it takes me.  Besides, the aim is really to introduce readers to the rich and varied musical styles and sound that come from our country.

I decided to just go with with it and use one of my all-time idols (Bra) Hugh Masekela to tell you where he came from musically.

Also:  

As I’m from Cape Town, the city’s beat (I dare say ‘heartbeat’) stems from it’s historical global position as a refreshment station for the old Dutch East Asian Company, which started a refreshment station in the southern-most tip of Africa for shipping companies rounding Africa en-route to India (for spices). 

As Mac McKenzie (in the video below) will tell you, Cape Town was a confluence of all the nations of the world… right there in the Cape.  That’s is also where my favourite genre originated… Cape Jazz: a mixture of all the “blood of the world” as per Mac McKenzie.  

Lastly, I’ll play you a video of one of the foremost exponents of Cape Town Jazz, Abdulla Ebrahim (previously known as Dollar Brand) playing his famous song “Manenberg.”  The song is named after a suburb of Cape Town where coloured people/people of mixed heritage were forcibly removed to during Apartheid. 

I hope you will take this journey with me as I tell you about South Africa… through it’s music.

Here’s Hugh Masekela:

Cape Town music according to Mac McKenzie:

Abdullah Ebrahim’s Manenberg:

Of course South African music is not limited to only these two genres.  There are also Afrikaans music, kwaito, rap/hiphop, pop music as well as many others.

This journey will be an ongoing one.

Welcome and enjoy.