If there’s one music style that never fails to make me smile its classic girl groups. The harmonies, the youth, the choreographed moves, the identical outfits – what’s not to love. I’ve spent thousands of hours devouring the groups most people had heard of, from the bad girls of 60s pop culture to the ultra-modern proto-feminist women of late 90s R&B, but those song selections always remained within the realm of the Western music world. It wasn’t until a friend sent me a copy of the compilation album Classic Mbaqanga Girl Groups(compiled by the blog Electric Jive) that I was awakened to the history of girl groups in South Africa, and the important role they played during a period of immense change.
Mbaqanga is a jazz influenced style of popular music that developed during the 1960s and 70s in working-class Black townships in South Africa. The style was a direct result of changes in South African society at the time. As segregationist apartheid policies forced Black South Africans to populate urbanised townships to work as domestic or industrial labourers, many struggled with being removed from the rural culture they knew. The upbeat style of Mbaqanga was a direct reaction to the state violence that seeped into every aspect of society. Performed in local township shebeens, Mbaqanga was a blend of Western jazz and R&B and traditional Zulu vocal styles. More than a music genre, Mbaqanga was a call for national pride amongst disenfranchised Black South Africans. Even the genre name, a Zulu word for steamed cornbread, signalled a reclamation of their identity beyond oppression.
The revolutionary spirit in Mbaqanga was evident in the upbeat, jovial attitude of the girl groups, with lyrics that spoke to a need for personal freedom, romantic love, and joy. It was a sign of a people determined to live unabashedly no matter the price. Often accompanied by a ‘groaner’, a male vocalist who added the bass in the call and response songs, Mbaqanga girl groups attracted huge crowds thanks to their addictive sound and became the pop stars of their era. Although Mbaqanga fell in popularity in the 1980s due to the rise of other genres like the Bubblegum style, the genre is still more than worthy of memorialising. Here are my top five Mbaqanga girl group songs to get you started on your own love affair with this illustrious genre.
Mahotella Queens – ‘Umculo Kawupheli’
If you only need to know one Mbaqanga girl group it has to be the legendary Mahotella Queens [pictured above]. Led by one of genre’s famous groaners, Simon ‘Mahlathini’ Nkabinde, and lead singer Hilda Tloubatla, the internationally successful Mahotella Queens amassed a fifty-year career and even performed at Nelson Mandela’s seventieth birthday celebrations. ‘Umculo Kawupheli’ is a perfect example of the group’s distinctive…
