South Africa has a long tradition of harmony singing, stretching back to Soloman Linda’s famous 1933 song Mbube, which created a genre of its own to isicathamiya folk singing that led to one of the country’s most potent popular genres, mbaqanga and on to gospel choirs.
Linda’s song later morphed into a global hit Wimoweh in 1948 for the US vocal group The Weavers and then to the 1961 hit The Lion Sleeps Tonight by the Tokens.
From the early years of the 20th century as Christian churches spread across South Africa, African music was incorporated into gospel music. Fast forward to the 1990s, and new gospel stars like Rebecca Malope began to emerge and became hugely popular. During the Apartheid era, gospel music provided some solace from harsh social conditions and also was used as a subversive tool to communicate around censorship.
Despite the achievement of political…
