3. Videos: Cape Traditional Singers & Fezeka Youth Choir, Traditional Music from The Cape 

3 concert videos (2013). Author: Denis-Constant Martin.

Identifier: https://doi.org/10.34847/nkl.ad346cxc 

Extracts of a concert filmed by Denis-Constant Martin at the Scène nationale d’Orléans, October 8th, 2013; reproduced with the kind permission of Mr Anwar Gambeno and the Festival d’automne à Paris: Joséphine Markowits and Bénédicte Dreher.

The videos

01. Roesa (Rosa)

Soloist: Mustapha Adams

“Roesa” is undoubtedly the most popular nederlandsliedjie today, so much so that it has become the Malay Choir anthem. Originally performed in Muslim weddings, probably from the 1930s, this very simple love story proclaims probity and loyalty values that are essential for a community affected by slavery, racism, and forced displacement.

02. Katrina Die Voorloeper (Catherine, the drum major)

Soloist: Jereme Trompeter

Like many comic songs, Katrina is about a moffie (a transvestite homosexual, with no pejorative connotation) who is the troupe’s drum major, the one who leads the way wearing an ornately decorated costume. Her father is angry with her, but her mother is very proud. At the end of the story, Katrina gets married (to a man), the dowry has been paid, but her troupe members wonder, “Who is going to be our drum major now?”

03. Meadowlands

performed by the Cape Traditional Singers and the Fezeka Youth Choir

The song was composed by Strike Vilakazi in 1956, when Sophiatown, Johannesburg’s most mixed neighbourhood, was declared a ’white zone‘, and inhabitants were driven out and transported to Meadowlands, a place around which Soweto would develop. This song, popularised by Dorothy Masuka, was astutely written. For those who were victims, the song was unequivocally a protest against the forced displacement, but the censors believed that it supported the government’s policy. 

About

The Cape Traditional Singers

The Cape Traditional Singers were created by Anwar Gambeno to get the city’s emblematic choral repertoires heard outside Cape Town. This group sings both carnival songs performed by the klopse (clubs) during the New Year festivities and Malay Choir songs, competitions for which come every year after those of the klopse. Two genres of songs are particularly typical of Cape Town. The moppies, comic songs in Afrikaans in which humorous lyrics are put on an assembly of melodic snatches borrowed from diverse repertoires; the soloist must express humour by underlining or completing the story with gestures. The nederlandsliedjies (little Dutch songs) belong specifically to the Malay Choirs; their tunes and lyrics are of Dutch origin but have been transformed by a style of interpretation in which a soloist must subtly embellish the melodies and “pass” them to the choir using very elaborate techniques—the result is a surprising contrast between the solo voice, which evokes the Arab world and the East, and the choir, which uses Western tonal harmony. Anwar Gambeno is singer and musical director for the Malay Choirs and the Klopse. Like most choirmasters, he can neither read nor write music, but he has fully mastered the art of composing melodies in his mind and harmonising polyphonies for three or four voices. He knows how to make the most of the singers that he helps to train, sometimes from a very young age, and how to attract high quality soloists, whether for moppies or nederlandsliedjies. Anwar Gambeno is also a man committed to his community: his choir is a haven for young people who thereby avoid being trapped in drugs and gangs; he is also involved in various charitable works. An amateur musician and music lover, he defends a view of singing which does not reject modernisation, but which aims to preserve the strongest features of what he calls “tradition.”

Credits

Lead and ghoema drum: Anwar Gambeno.

Musicians: Ismail Adams, guitar; Frank Hendricks, guitar; Mogamat Adeeb Majiet, ghoema drum; Mogamat Petersen, banjo; Clive Samuel, bass guitar; Ridhwaan Trompeter, guitar and banjo.

Soloists: Jereme Trompeter, moppie soloist; Johaar Kenny, moppie soloist; Mustapha Adams, nederlands soloist.

Choir: Durrell Africa, Shaheed Alexander, Nicholas Arendolf, Jageja Davids, Morne Davids, Muneeb Gambeno, Peter Gambeno, Irufaan Kamaldien, Jonathan Lombard, Cheslyn Samuel Lombard, Mogamat Manuel, Mogamat Ismail Majiet, Melvyn Matthews, Raymond Solomons, Dassien Woodman.

The Fezeka Youth Choir

The choir created by Phumelele Tsewu is heir to a history dating back to the early nineteenth century. In 1824, envoys from the Glasgow Missionary Society founded a mission in Lovedale (now in the Eastern Cape). In 1841, they opened an institute there for young Africans of both sexes. Music and hymn singing were an integral part of the teaching. Very quickly, the students gave a special colour to the hymns that they performed: they mixed the four-part polyphony of European choirs with responsorial structures, built in staggered cycles and resting on intricate rhythmic patterns of African singing. This transformation of the European hymnody was formalised by composers trained at Lovedale and other institutions, such as the Ohlange Institute in Natal. John Knox Bokwe, Reuben Caluza, Enoch Sontonga, and Tiyo Soga composed Christian hymns, but also songs in which they spoke of the fate suffered by Africans. ‘Nkosi Sikelel’iAfrika‘ by Enoch Sontonga is the best known example. After this first generation, other composers, such as Joshua Pulumo Mohapeloa, Michael Moerane, Mzilikazi Khumalo, and BPJ Tyamzashe kept on adding to the repertoire of African choirs, while in churches, new hymns open to the influences of African American gospel were emerging.

Phumelele Tsewu, an English teacher and former vice-principal at Fezeka Secondary School in Gugulethu (black African township in Cape Town), uses choral singing to compensate for deficiencies in music education. His passion, open-mindedness, and musical culture have enabled him to detect extraordinary voices among children from extremely poor families. Many were then able to study music. Generation after generation, he trains singers in extremely diverse repertoires: works by African composers, traditional melodies, songs in Afrikaans or moppies of Cape Town carnival. The choirs he leads have won many regional and national competitions thanks to their excellence and versatility.

Credits

Lead: Phume Tsewu

Soloists: Nokwanda Bovana, Zoleka Meke, Busiswa Ndlebe, Zolina Ngejane, Nokuthula Sidambe.

Choir: Phumeza Dlayedwa, Skunana Fezeka, Bathandwa Gubesa, Viwe Magopeni, Paul Malgas, Simphiwe Mayeki, Lubabalo Mbili, Monde Mdingi, Makaziswe Msuthu, Makaziwe Msuthu, Sibusiso Mxaka, Ntombelanga Ndlzya, Sibulelo Ndlayo Ndlzaba, Sibulelo Ndlayo Ndlzaba, Nyekelo Ndlayo Ndlzaba, Nyekelo Ndlayo Juliet Sodayise, Zukiswa Tsewu.