Nasty C, the award-winning South African rapper hailed ‘The Coolest Kid In Africa’, recently signed with Def Jam in the United States, through a joint venture with Universal Music Africa, which sees him joining the likes of Kanye West and Justin Bieber. The 23-year-old rapper, also one of FORBES AFRICA’s 30 Under 30 list-makers in 2018, tells us more.



Mainstream South African rapper, Nsikayesizwe David Junior Ngcobo, popularly known as Nasty C, recently made his US debut with the song, There They Go, a single launched just before the lockdown in South Africa in March. Shot in Durban, in the country’s sunny KwaZulu-Natal coast, it’s the first advance track of his forthcoming album Zulu Man with Some Power.



Known as the most-streamed South African artist on Apple Music for four years in a row, he is effecting the crossover to the global stage and helping change stereotypes about African music. The Universal Music Group also recently announced the launch of Def Jam Africa, which shows new interest in talent across the continent.



Says Nasty C, who has been rapping since he was nine years old, and shot to fame with songs like Juice Back and Bad Hair, to FORBES AFRICA: “I hope to change that whole stereotype and just show them that we have a lot of depth and different flavors, and there are a lot of things we can teach outsiders that they don’t really know about. Hopefully, by exposing more African artists and if I can open the gates and have hundreds of artists follow after me, I feel we can bridge that gap. They will see Africa in a different light.”



While on lockdown in Johannesburg, the rapper has been building his online presence.



“I have had to focus on the digital side of things, and also be able to go live on YouTube and connect with fans; give them a taste of music that’s still to come.”



Through technology, even if the pandemic pursues, he feels music will survive.



“Music is very unpredictable. With the whole TikTok thing, artists are able to go viral&#8230; And that’s been working out very successfully and help them earn a little bit of money. I don’t think artists are going to be struggling if this pandemic continues… But nothing can top the energy of being in an arena with fans.”



Ten years from now, the young rapper hopes to be seen as an artist for generations.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I hope to be a legend, I don’t want it to be about how rich I am or how my music career is, as long as I have changed the way my people think…”</blockquote>



His new song album Zulu Man with Some Power, he says, is about taking more pride in his people and culture and showcasing it on the global stage.



He says he looks up to artists like Burna Boy and Wizkid “who are representing Africa and uplifting Africa in the world”.



“My idols are living testimony that there are powers in the universe that could allow you to go from zero to hero. That’s what I hope to teach my fans. I come from a place where dreaming is not a thing, where people’s ceilings are this low. They feel they are undeserving of the finer things in life. I am just here to tell them that they are wrong. They should go for their dreams no matter how crazy and outrageous they are!”

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The Def Jam Star And Trend-Setter In African Music: ‘I Come From A Place Where Dreaming Is Not A Thing’

Their humming vibrates the pits of your stomach, their harmonies leave you wanting more and their combination of dancing and singing is extraordinary. Over the years, their uniqueness has garnered South Africa’s Ladysmith Black Mambazo numerous awards from around the world – including the coveted Grammys. They are regarded as the highest award bestowed on musicians in the world. Ladysmith Black Mambazo has bagged four of the gold-plated trophies, depicting a glided gramophone.
The group may not have been nominated for this year’s awards; but they will forever be etched in Grammy history.
Although Ladysmith Black Mambazo is internationally renowned and loved, back at home in South Africa it’s a different story and it shows in their album sales. The older generation connects better with the group, the younger generation tends to follow western music religiously. The group spends the majority of the year traveling across the United States (US) and Europe, returning home for short stints to see family and do a few performances.
I saw them perform for the first time just under a year ago.
It was June, if my memory serves me well. The warm sun was setting on a crowd dressed up to fight the winter at a concert outside South Africa’s capital, Pretoria. On stage, arrived one of the country’s youngest and hottest house acts Mi Casa, then Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The two groups from the same backyard, half a century apart, sang a new love song called My Sugar like they were born into it.
Mi Casa’s J-Something introduces the song, singing, “When you love somebody, right to the point where it hurts, and she got you feeling naughty,” a flurry of images flicker in your memory about those moments I had with my significant other.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo throws you right back to the good old days of Zulu traditional music and the isicathamiya sound they’re famous for. The isiZulu word, isicathamiya, is a sound best described as walking softly, a soft shuffling style of dancing, says Xolani Majozi, Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s executive producer. It is enriched by ragtime-influenced choral part-singing.
The group joins in after the chorus: “Njalo waz wamuhle Ntombi, awujwayelki ma ngikubona…” in isiZulu declaring their love for this beautiful girl as if they are seeing her for the first time. “Sengizothumela abakhulu,” – we are sending my uncles, they declare. This is a sign that the young man is ready to get married.
My Sugar mixes groovy house beats with smooth isiZulu vocals. The collaboration fuses two eras of Africa. The South African music legends match the youngsters note for note with swagger. They sign off with a flourish of two golden hits, Homeless, and Hello My Baby.
The crowd cheers the group off the stage, leaving Mi Casa to complete the set. Ladysmith Black Mambazo is rushed to the airport, for another gig in Durban at the MTV Africa Music Awards where they show they can hang in the contemporary music scene.
This is what Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been doing for over 50 years, while also surviving scores of line-up changes.
The current crop includes founding member Joseph Shabalala’s four sons Msizi, Thulani, Sibongiseni and Thamsanqa, grandson Babuyile as well as relatives Albert and Abednego Mazibuko, Russel Mthembu, Dlamini Mfanafuthi, and Pius Shezi.
It all started with a dream. Not a wishful one, but a recurring one. In 1964, Joseph dreamed of featuring in a choir singing in perfect harmony. He then formed what was to be the group of his dreams.
Formerly known as Ezimnyama (the Black Ones), Joseph renamed the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. ‘Ladysmith’ was the name of the farming village in which he lived, ‘Black’ represented the black oxen that were the strongest on the farm and ‘Mambazo’ is an isiZulu word for axe – an allusion to them chopping down the other choirs by winning almost every singing competition.
A few years later, a radio broadcast in 1970 paved the way to their first recording contract – the foundation that led to more than 74 albums.
In 1973, they released their debut album Amabutho – the first album to reach gold status in Africa.
In 1986, American singer Paul Simon collaborated with the group on his Grammy Award-winning Graceland album. It was considered a seminal album that popularized world music. It was here they also composed the now famous song, Homeless. The group also sang on Simon’s single Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes.
A year later, Simon produced the group’s first worldwide release of the album Shaka Zulu, which won them their first Grammy Award in 1988 for Best Traditional Folk Recording. Since then, they’ve been nominated 15 times and added three more Grammys for the albums Raise Your Spirit Higher in 2004, Ilembe in 2009 and Live: Singing For Peace Around The World in 2014.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo spend most of their time performing in the West and Europe, from Germany to Norway. Nearly 30 years after Graceland, the tours keep coming. During March, the group will tour the west coast of the US.
FORBES AFRICA met with the group in Johannesburg, a few months after they scooped their fourth Grammy. The men are laughing and chatting in isiZulu dialect, heavy and untainted by years working away
from Africa.
Because the group comprises of Joseph Shabalala’s sons and some of his relatives of the Mshengu clan, I introduce myself with a different version of their surname, Tshabalala. They exclaim “nawe ungi Mshengu, ubuti wethu,” (you’re also an Mshengu, our brother). I am. We exchange hugs and they feel more at home. They’re celebrities but they could be your next door neighbor.
On this particular day, the group have taken a day off from their musical Amambazo at Pretoria’s State Theatre. Created by Joseph, the 25-cast and six-piece live band musical, along with Ladysmith Black Mambazo, is in its second year on stage. It follows Joseph’s story of founding the group.
More than 50 years of music has had its struggle and casualties. The group released their latest album called Always With Us, a tribute to the matriarch Nelli Shabalala, Joseph’s wife who was shot and killed outside their home in the KwaZulu Natal province. The album is a collection of songs she recorded with her church choir a year before she died.
In December 1991, Joseph’s brother and fellow member, Headman, was killed by an off-duty white security guard near Ladysmith. A few years later, Joseph’s other brother, Ben, was also shot and killed while driving his children to school.
But through it all the Shabalala’s persevered.
About three days before the group won their fourth Grammy, Majola announced that Joseph, aged 73, was scaling down his activities with the group.
“It’s a temporary retirement. He had back surgery and is recovering from that. As soon as he gets better, he won’t be as involved in the group like before, but he is still part of the group,” says Sibongiseni Shabalala.
“When we rehearse at home, we rehearse with him. He is still teaching us new songs.”
While the ensemble continue to travel across the globe, one of the senior members, Albert Mazibuko, is entrusted with keeping Joseph’s ways. Mazibuko is Joseph’s cousin and is the only original member left in the group.
“I’m so supportive to him. I make sure the group keeps together when we are going to places and that we keep our promises. I make sure the uniform is perfect,” says the 66-year-old Mazibuko, who designs the group’s shirts.
The men of Ladysmith Black Mambazo say it is not a group you can just join; it is one you grow up in. Music becomes part and parcel for all family members. Msizi, who is also part of the management team, says his father allows the families to bring their children to rehearsals so the different generations are able to work together and generate fresh ideas.
When the time came for the third generation to join Ladysmith Black Mambazo, even Msizi’s eldest son, Babuyile, had to serve an apprenticeship.
Before joining the senior team, Babuyile, along with two other relatives, founded Young Mbazo in 2009. It is a group where the younger members of the family sing isicathamiya and want to not only keep it alive, but make it more appealing to the younger generation.
“This type of music, it looks like a rhino, it’s about to be extinct. It’s not cool to be isicathamiya. It looks like you’re backward. But we are moving forward, using contemporary genres like RnB, kwaito, soul and hip-hop and we fuse that with isicathamiya,” says Babuyile.
As the day is about to end, I steal a moment with one of the most reserved members of the group, Msizi. He helped register Ladysmith Black Mambazo as a company. Msizi says they are trying to sell merchandise and also buy back albums from record companies so that they can all be distributed and sold under one umbrella.
For now, the group will continue performing in internationally to sold-out auditoriums. The group can spend up to four consecutive months touring.
Back in 2008, Joseph announced that his youngest son, Thamsanqa would take over as the leader of the group when he retires from international touring.
“The mission and message will continue. When the time comes for me to finish touring and to stay home, they will carry on my dream,” says Joseph.
With that said, Ladysmith Black Mambazo will continue to produce more albums, maybe even adding more Grammy Awards. And to think a dream started it all.

Glittering Prizes  To The Soft Shuffle Of Feet

Here is a festival which is growing despite the unofficial cultural boycott called on Swaziland by the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), a South African-based organization. The “cultural boycott” is called in support of political reform in the monarchy; and  has already kept South African musicians such as Ringo Madlingozi and newcomer Zahara from performing  in Swaziland.
<div id="attachment_894" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-894" class="wp-image-894 size-medium" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/photobramlammers-0131-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />SWAZILAND, MALKERNS &#8211; 20120525 &#8211; The Giant Puppets od Mozambique performs during the Bushfire Festival, Swaziland International Festival of the Arts. Photo: Bram Lammers</div>
Bushfire has grown from the initial 4,500 visitors to 17,000 with an impressive number of artists from all across the continent and Europe performing. The offering is great—from comedy to spoken word, reggae, house and theater, all on a small budget of R3.5-4 million ($476,000). It’s Swaziland’s biggest event and employs over 1,000 locals.
The MTN Bushfire festival took place during the last weekend of May. This idea which formed in Jiggs Thorne’s mind, has grown into a Swazi institution that has attracted many from across the globe and a major sponsor like MTN.
<div id="attachment_891" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-891" class="size-large wp-image-891" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/jiggs1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />SWAZILAND, MALKERNS &#8211; Jiggs Thorne Photo: Bram Lammers</div>
Jiggs Thorne (Jiggs) is a Swazi native who studied drama and politics in South Africa, two subjects he feels are pretty much the same thing. As a creative, whose passion was theater, Jiggs’ first job in Johannesburg was at the Market Theater, as a waiter, as well as at the adjoining jazz club. He opened up a shop selling African crafts from Swaziland and got the idea for ‘House on Fire’ where the festival took place.
Jiggs refers to ‘House on Fire’ as an “on-going creation&#8230; a fantasy scape” that started 10 years ago, and sits on what is now a family business complex on their farm in the Malkerns valley, in rural Swaziland. His idea was to create a space to nurture the local creative industry.
Bushfire is six years old and all the festival proceeds go to an NGO called ‘Young Heroes’, started by Steve Gallagher, a former member of the Peace Corps. Young Heroes tries to help the AIDS orphans in the country. It keeps the orphans with relatives and allows people to sponsor them, these 1,000 sponsored households receive monthly cash stipends to assist with food, clothing and education. When Gallagher and Jiggs came together they realised that they were both looking for the same thing and found a partnership that has worked for them both.
Jiggs says that the name Bushfire comes from “the flames from ‘House on Fire’ expanding and growing outwards”. Its primary focus is developing the local arts while its secondary focus is raising awareness and addressing Swaziland’s great social issues.
The festival receives funding from local partners and businesses and MTN has just signed a 3 year title sponsorship.
This is something that takes a year to plan and implement. Walking through the festival, you could see Jiggs carrying sculptures; running around approving requests; trying to find crew on the two-way radios and keeping an eye on things.
Keeping in line with sustainable growth and sharing, Bushfire participated in the AFRIFESTNET, an African Festival Network, launched in Accra, Ghana. The launch was attended by 37 festivals from 18 countries. The idea for Bushfire’s involvement is to be able to share artists and connect with other festivals— taking advantage of economies of scale by coordinating their efforts, dates and acts.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-large wp-image-890" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Csydwillowsmith_bushfire_friday_56-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />
Entering the festival, one gets a condom to spread the message of safe sex and responsible fun. Swaziland is said to have the highest HIV prevalence rate in the world, which was sitting at 26.9% in UNAIDS’2009 estimates.
Music was not the only entertainment on offer. There was a market with locals selling their wares and a great focus is placed on free trade and being eco-conscious. The food stalls had everything from pizza to Indian and Mozambican food. The two campsites were full of festival goers who braved the winter chill, all in the name of a good time. Walking along the campsites you heard distinct murmurs of siSwati, German, French and a mixture of accents.
It was a great success in anyone’s eyes and a lesson to all about using whatever means available to push your message across, by celebrating diversity and making a difference.
Africa, where’s your fire?
<h3>“Ayo, Marry My Brother!”</h3>
The crowd stood patiently under the stars on a clear, cool, night, as the band set up for the artist they’d all come to see. Then, there she was… cut-off denim shorts, long legs and Chuck Taylors.
She sings like only she can, drawing you in, then she stops.
<div id="attachment_895" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-895" class="size-large wp-image-895" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/photobramlammers-0918-1024x703.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="325" />SWAZILAND, MALKERNS &#8211; 20120525 &#8211; Ayo performs and moves through the audience to dance and sing with the crowd during the Bushfire Festival, Swaziland International Festival of the Arts. Photo: Bram Lammers</div>
“The stage is too far. I don’t like it,” she says.
She makes her way to the edge of the stage. The crew and her manager look on stunned as they realize what she wants to do. Jump! Security rush to help her down. She says she hates distance and climbs onto the barrier to sing. The guard is standing there, holding onto her legs; the people are ecstatic; phones, cameras, tabs and ipads capture it all. In the blink of an eye she leaps from the barrier and is among the singing crowd. There’s a mad scramble by the crew to get to her, they jump the barrier, struggle with the gate. She doesn’t seem to notice or care very much… You may not see her but you can definitely hear her. What a voice. What a woman. It’s no wonder they wouldn’t let her end the set.
“We want more. We want more. Down on my knees… Down on my knees,” the crowd chanted for their favourite song.
“Ayo kissed me,” says one ecstatic fan as she screams out, “Ayo, marry my brother!”
If you haven’t guessed who was making waves, we are talking about singer, songwriter and mother—Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin, better known as Ayo. This 32-year-old German-Nigerian—who was born near Cologne, Germany—blew onto the music scene with her 2006 debut album “Joyful” and hasn’t looked back or stopped dancing.
She may be scared of flying, but after six years and three albums, she’s a true gypsy. In about a week Ayo flew from Guadeloupe to Paris, then into Swaziland for the MTN Bushfire festival. Then it was off to the Réunion Island, via South Africa, and then back to Paris—where her two children eagerly awaited her return.  Such is the life of one of the hardest working women in soul. Twenty-nine scheduled performances and an album recording between May, 11 and August, 3 alone. And she still has the energy to climb barriers.
It’s amazing to think how she manages to juggle her many roles with such grace and humility.
Her life has not been an easy one, with a mother who struggled with addiction and stints in foster homes. As a biracial child, fitting in was a challenge. Ayo points out that her middle name— Olasunmibo—means “the one who was born outside” and she doesn’t like the term “mixed” being used to describe her race.
“Mixed means 50/50, I think of myself as 100/100,” she says.
Ayo‘s music appeals to so many different people from so many different walks of life and transcends generations. She doesn’t know why this is but notes that we all share more than we think.
“My music is a therapy. Instead of going to the shrink, I’m playing music and writing music.”
‘I’m Gonna Dance’, ‘What Is Love’ and ‘Down On My Knees’ are only a few of her songs, which she calls antibiotics.
This mother of two, who’s all about connecting and sharing, is a true child of Africa, who feels she draws her strength from the continent.
“To me Africa stands for strength. I see strong people and people who have a lot of hope, who believe. People who know what it’s like to get up every day and fight.”
To her, it’s not about following the American and European industries but embracing the talent in the continent from whence it comes.
Not a fan of reality talent shows, she believes life is where you learn.
Heavens, I ran into her again the next day, waiting for the fight to Johannesburg and she looked just the same as she did on that stage; smiling, open and casual. We parted ways at O.R. International, in South Africa, with a promise that she’ll be back to perform in Africa.
It was off to Réunion Island with her straw hat in hand. I wonder whether she jumped the barrier there?
&nbsp;

Setting Fire To Swaziland

For someone who has been a bona fide superstar on the African continent for well over two decades, Yvonne Chaka Chaka is strangely the most approachable person I have ever met, with few airs and graces.
She is the opposite of a spoilt superstar; instead, she has this quality of mothering everyone around her. A couple of times during my one-on-one interview with her, she picks the most inopportune moment to ask whether I’m hungry and proceeds to offer me some pasta and mince.
<div id="attachment_337" style="width: 484px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-337" class="size-large wp-image-337" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/chaka2_1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="316" />Yvonne Chaka Chaka at her home, Bryanston, north of Johannesburg</div>
We meet Chaka Chaka at her home in the wealthy suburb of Bryanston in the north of Johannesburg. We are not the only crew here; there is a team from a popular showbiz magazine wrapping up a shoot with her. One of her many assistants tells us that she has another two more interviews later. So how is it that this 46-year-old mother of four boys has managed to remain relevant, in demand and adored in this very fickle entertainment industry?
“I have just never bought into this notion that the music and entertainment industry are all ‘sex, drugs and rock-’n-roll’. I was raised to always maintain a sense of pride and to be responsible at all times. From the first moment after I was discovered, all I ever wanted to do was to make it big so I could uproot my family out of poverty. My mother, who was a domestic worker at that point, wanted me to get a law degree and be very successful. She didn’t approve of me being a singer. She had higher expectations,” she says.
Chaka Chaka’s debut album, I’m in Love with a DJ, sold more than 35,000 copies in two weeks back in 1985. Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, Chaka Chaka was to belt out iconic hits such as Umqombothi (African beer), Burning Up, Thank You, Mister DJ and Who’s the Boss?, among many other hits. Her songs are a soundtrack to many an African childhood, and she has performed in all corners of the African continent.
“I knew I was becoming really successful when everyone started comparing me to Brenda Fassie, who had started singing in 1981 and was the epitome of success at that time. Everybody started noticing me. My gig calendar went crazy and I could finally build my mother the three-bedroom house she wanted. I also started singing for serious company like former President Nelson Mandela, kings, queens and the world’s most important people,” she says proudly.
On the walls of her home, there are countless gongs, awards, trophies, certificates and picture portraits of her flanked by people straight from a name-dropper’s fantasy. Alongside them are many magazine covers and framed platinum-certified discs. The most refreshing aspect about Chaka Chaka’s career, though, is that it has been far from one-dimensional. She has managed to balance performing with getting an impressive higher education, being an entrepreneur and doing high-level philanthropy. It is her entrepreneurship that I am interested in, mainly because we have all heard the painful tale of beloved musicians dying as paupers.
“I started my first business in 1987. It was a hair salon based at the Carlton Centre shopping mall in the CBD of Johannesburg. It was called Le Classique and it was ahead of its time in the way it offered services. The salon had a separate wing where our VIP and celebrity clientele could come in and have private consultations, be pampered without the glare of the public, without delay or having to wait in queues. Le Classique was also one of the few salons at that time that had a multiracial client base,” she explains. The success of Le Classique led to Chaka Chaka opening another beauty salon on Kruis Street—just down the road from the Carlton Centre. “I opened my second salon in 1989. It was called Vonny’s 7th Heaven and it too was wildly successful. The two salons had a very good run until the steep escalation of crime in the CBD forced us to close shop,” she says.
These mishaps may have pushed Chaka Chaka away from the hair and beauty industry, but the business bug had bitten. In 1992, Chaka Chaka opened a limousine business.
“My husband and I bought a few limos and a couple of luxury American cars and started Byandlani Limousine Services. We realised that there was an influx of tourists coming to our shores as the political climate changed, so we jumped on the bandwagon. We hired drivers who would be based at the airport ready to pick up tourists and take them sightseeing, on tours or to wherever their destinations were,” she says.
Chaka Chaka also used her industry connections to boost her limo business’ image and they were chosen to transport Michael Jackson during his South African tour.
A few years later, legislation around how public transportation entities operate was changed, so Chaka Chaka decided to sell the cars and cut her losses.
“The cars were American, so they were a left-hand drive and we were always given grief about that. The business had also started doing badly at that point, so it made sense to just move on to something else,” she says.
Soon after the dissolution of Byandlani Limousine Services, Chaka Chaka then bought a house in Berea, downtown Johannesburg that she converted into offices for hire and a rehearsal venue for herself and other musicians.
“The house was a very popular rehearsal venue. You name any artist that was big during that period, and they were most likely also rehearsing with us. Bands like Sankomota and Stimela, as well as solo artists like Tshepo Tshola, Sibongile Khumalo and Hugh Masekela were among our clients,” she says.
Once again, crime became the thorn in her side and forced Chaka Chaka to think twice about the location of her business. “We got burgled way too many times. Our clients’ cars got hijacked and it quite simply became unpleasant. So we donated the house to a local church and once again shifted focus,” she says. This is the point where Chaka Chaka set her sights on the corporate world.
Her first major move was to buy into Gestetner—a company that produces printing machines.
“Buying into Gestetner surprised a lot of people. It was during the period where BEE (black economic empowerment) was the buzzword, so some even thought I was brought in to be ‘the token black’. People just didn’t understand why or how a singer could also feature in the corporate space,” she says.
Her move into corporate South Africa has flourished. Right now, she owns shares and sits on the board of JSE-listed Morvest Business Group, an IT company, as well as on the boards of many Section 21 companies like the African Women’s Development Board, Shalamuka Board, Sonke Skills Development and Women in Energy. Chaka Chaka also owns shares in major companies such as Media 24, Sasol and Telkom.
Even with such an impressive business portfolio, it is practically impossible to sit with Chaka Chaka and not notice that the thing that’s closest to her heart is her charity work. “I have just come back from Vietnam and Kenya, where I have been involved in a campaign started by the World Health Organization (WHO) along with The Global Fund and (international police agency) Interpol. The campaign aims to create awareness around fake medication, counterfeit ARVs and other drugs meant to treat dreaded diseases such as tuberculosis. I am the face of that campaign alongside fellow musician Youssou N’dour,” she says.
Chaka Chaka is also a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, and hints at the fact that unlike her other UN ambassador colleagues, such as movie star Angelina Jolie, she goes further than attending a UN press conference to just smile and wave.
“I have a passion for going to the grassroots and helping people who literally have nothing. I recently travelled to the most remote villages of Africa and shot a documentary highlighting the extreme plight of the people who live there in the hope that once it gets flighted on television, someone somewhere will do something to help these people who are so extremely disadvantaged.”
Chaka Chaka has also adopted Lethare High School in Jabulani Township in Soweto, where she has a program that supports the needy and sponsors a number of them through university.
“Lethare is the same school that I attended growing up. So knowing that community as intimately as I do, I knew that I had to do something to help, something to give back as they are behind my musical success. There are a few kids there whom we have taken to university, and in the next five years, I am making plans with Lethare’s principal to broaden this program so that there isn’t a child we cannot help,” she says.
With so much on Chaka Chaka’s plate, it is amazing that she finds time for everyone else in her life. But as I sit in her home, I realize that somehow it has been possible for this remarkable woman to raise great kids, keep her music career afloat and go from strength to strength in her business life. She is not about to slow down—she is currently shooting a musical with Leleti Khumalo (of Sarafina! fame) and Luthuli Dlamini, and going into studio to record a new album that will be released in 2012 through her own company, Chaka Chaka Promotions.
As I drive out of her home, I see a Lifebuoy soap billboard with her face on it—she is there too.

Tag: African Music

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

The Def Jam Star And Trend-Setter In African Music: ‘I Come From A Place Where Dreaming Is Not A Thing’

Glittering Prizes To The Soft Shuffle Of Feet

Setting Fire To Swaziland

Doing Business To The Chaka Chaka Beat