Tag Archives: music

Music that Inspires

It’s Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday today, but rather than focus on Mr. Mandela himself, I thought I might introduce some of you to the South African choral stylings of Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

I have been listening Ladysmith Black Mambazo since as long as I can remember. My parents are, I suppose, what an NPR listener would call “World Music” fanatics. While they generally prefer West African music and Afropop, they used to drag me to Ladysmith concerts when I was a kid. I liked Ladysmith well enough at the time (as much as any fidgety kid with zero attention span possibly could), but it wasn’t until later that I became truly enthralled by their music and their messages of anti-racism, non-violence, peace, love, and faith. (Personal Note: My IRL name means faith in Swahili.)

Ladysmith was formed by Joseph Shabalala as a result of “a series of dreams he had in 1964, in which he heard certain isicathamiya harmonies (isicathamiya being the traditional music of the Zulu people).”

The name “Ladysmith Black Mambazo” is derived from: the hometown of Shabalala’s family, Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal; the black ox, considered to be the strongest farm animal; and mambazo, which means axe in the Zulu language, and is symbolic of the choir’s ability to “chop down” the competition.

Ladysmith garnered world acclaim after being “discovered” by Paul Simon in 1985, and recording the track “Homeless” for Simon’s album Graceland (which is one of my favorite albums in the history of everything):

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