Acoustic South African Poetry

Wednesday, June 15 2005 @ 10:23 AM EDT

Germany - South African musician and poet Sam Tshabalala has a new album entitled Meadowlands (Tropical Music 68.848). The songs on Meadowlands are sung in various local languages such as Zulu, Shangaan, Tswana and English. Sam sings about his family, tragic accidents, forced removals and AIDS. Despite the tragic subjects of the songs, the music carries an easy and happy mood. Sam sings about the tragic killing of his nephew in the ghetto, "Soneni", accompanied by a thriving rhythm and a vivid guitar that expresses more strength and happiness than sadness. This combination of rhythmic and powerful music with tragic lyrics has a long tradition in South Africa, as it helped the people to support the problems and sufferings of Apartheid and the hard life in the ghettos.

The song “Meadowlands" tells the painful story of the forced and brutal removals in the 1960s of the non-white population from their lands into the arid and dusty outskirts of Johannesburg. "Meadowlands" symbolizes the loss of the home ground and the transfer into foreign zones, as it happened also to Sam Tshabalala personally.

Even in Paris, he remains a stranger among strangers, although it is his home since almost twenty years. Paris is rather the home of the Africans coming from the former French colonies such as Cameroon, Senegal and the Ivory Coast. As a South-African he would be maybe more at home in the South African community of former exiles in London. But although he is very far away from his home country, his heart still beats there.

Sam Tshabalala shows the great variety of South African culture in the eleven songs, which derive partly from local traditions. Different languages can be found in the lyrics of the new album Meadowlands, such as Sam's mother tongue Shangaan, Tswana, his language at school, and of course Zulu.

World Music Central
http://worldmusiccentral.org/article.php/20050529100239340