South African music is a confluence of paths; a plethora of hands, feet and voices crossing and moving ever forward, yet still interconnected. For that reason, attempting to unravel those strands and arrive at some singular core is a dizzying prospect, but the word “mbube” was at the heart of that inextricable weave during the earliest days of the country’s popular recorded music.
Today, mbube describes a specific variety of South African choral music composed of multipart a cappella harmonies, usually sung by men, and usually in Zulu. The genre’s name is taken from the most famous song of the style.
