Ladysmith Brings Zulu Culture to Kids

Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s newest recording is a first for the group whose high-stepping a capella Zulu rhythms were catapulted to world fame by Paul Simon’s “Graceland” album, and who have since toured the world, won a Grammy, sung the ABCs on “Sesame Street” and performed on Broadway.

“Gift of the Tortoise,” released today by Music for Little People/Warner Bros. Records, is the group’s debut children’s album. A rich blend of traditional South African music and storytelling, the recording has a deeper meaning for Ladysmith leader Joseph Shabalala. It is part of his mission to preserve his country’s indigenous culture and traditions.

“It’s time to follow the footsteps of our ancestors,” Shabalala said from New York, where the group of 10 Zulu singer-dancers was wrapping up an extensive Canadian-U.S. tour. “That’s the only way to know ourselves.”

Shabalala, a father of nine and grandfather of four, is soft-spoken and quick to laugh, but he is passionate about salvaging traditions of spirituality and family that he has seen eroding during decades of political and social upheaval.

On the album, which includes South African pop star and anti-apartheid activist Johnny Clegg on guitar, Zulu and English lyrics and narrative paint vivid pictures of a land “under a bright blue sky” and of a people to whom rain can be a matter of life and death.

The songs tell of mothers coming home with bundles balanced on their heads, filled with treats bought with a harvest’s surplus. They tell about a boy who is turned into a cat as punishment for his intolerance of others’ differences. And they tell of how children miss parents who can only support them by working in cities hundreds of miles away from home.

The heart of the album, however, is the first song, “Kanje Kanje” (“This Way and That”). As Ladysmith Black Mambazo wraps the Zulu lyrics in trademark velvet harmonies, a wind kicks up, growing louder and louder. The narrator, a wise old Tortoise, breaks in. (Gcina Mhlophe, a professional storyteller and former director of Johannesburg’s acclaimed Market Theatre, performs the narration, which she co-wrote with Leib Ostrow).

“Listen to the winds blow. The trees are bending in the storm and the birds are having a hard time staying in the trees. . . . Why is there such a gale?

“Perhaps the ancestors are unhappy so many of the old songs aren’t being sung and are disappearing from the face of the Earth. The songs must be sung to be saved.”

Children’s voices rush to join in, piping English lyrics layered over the soft Zulu voices. The winds die.

“Music creates order out of chaos,” Shabalala said. “When the people came, the white people in South Africa, the (indigenous) music was there a long time, but they don’t understand. They build many schools and many universities, but the music of the regional people has no home.”

That is what gives the song “Homeless” on the “Graceland” album its resonance for Shabalala and he expresses warm appreciation for pop star Paul Simon, who “opened the big gate. All the South African musicians, the scholars, they all have a chance now.”

To further that chance, Shabalala and co-producer Ostrow, Music for Little People’s CEO, are donating their producer royalties from the recording to the planned Ladysmith Black Mambazo Academy of Music, a school to be dedicated to the teaching and preserving of indigenous South African music.

Classes have already begun at Natal University near the city of Durban and land has been donated for an independent facility, but funding for construction is needed.

“Gift of the Tortoise” almost didn’t happen. Indeed, two years ago, the future of the group itself was in doubt. Shortly after Shabalala agreed to Ostrow’s proposal for the children’s album in 1991, his brother Headman was slain. An off-duty security guard was charged with the killing.

“I was thinking this is the way of God telling me to not continue,” Shabalala said. “From that day, I was telling myself I’m not going to sing anymore. But as the time goes, the dream came to me at night, it was like somebody telling me that this is your gift. You must carry on. God gave you this to teach and lead. And from that day when I wake up, I feel like (his brother’s) spirit is still with me.”

Despite his personal tragedy, Shabalala--whose brother-in-law is Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi, leader of the ANC rival party Inkatha--and his group remain apolitical.

“We (black South Africans) are recognized now,” Shabalala said. “People know that this country is for us all, not only for the white people. That is very important, but we are still praying to see people coming together . . . we are praying for peace.”

His voice heavy with emotion, Shabalala issued a challenge to the world’s leaders. “Forget about hating each other, forget about colors, forget about different languages. Let us try to find the right way to get to the right point.”

About his country’s troubled past and unclear future, Shabalala said, “The simple answer is that we have hope, because we are born with hope. . . .”