Sizwe Sibiya
One of South Africa’s most prized jewels in the music industry, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, celebrated the life of Nelson Mandela with a live concert at the Johannesburg Theatre on Sunday night.
In a theatre filled with Imbube and Isicathamiya music lovers, the live concert was the group’s first live performance with a crowd since the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020.
Black Mambazo were among Mandela’s favourite musicians. He reportedly called the group “South Africa’s cultural ambassadors”.
“Nelson Mandela was a very big inspiration for Ladysmith Black Mambazo,” Msizi Shabalala, the son of the late Mambazo founder Joseph Shabalala, told SABC before performing at the event.
Sunday night was not the first time the group had sung for Mandela on his birthday.
“He gave us inspiration when we went to sing for him on his birthday in 1993,” Shabalala said, “when he stood in front of us and told us that our music had been his inspiration while he was still in prison.”
Black Mambazo’s only concert in the past two years was a virtual one held in February 2021 to mark the yearly music register. But now the group is getting ready to embark on a world tour which will start on 13 October in Bristol.
The five-time Grammy Award winners also feature in two songs on Burna Boy’s sixth studio album Love, Damini.
