Ladysmith Black Mambazo brings legacy tour to Cape Town

Grammy Award-winning musical group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, will be in Cape Town this weekend as part of their legacy tour.

The tour is a celebration of their late founder, Dr Joseph Shabalala. The group will be performing at the Artscape Opera House from Saturday evening until Sunday.

Before retiring from touring in 2014, Shabalala carefully mentored the next generation, ensuring a seamless transition.

"As our fathers would say, when we are at our performances, we sometimes feel as if our grandfather is there with us. So, we still have that presence as well, and we still have that feeling that he's still there watching us and urging us along," said Shabalala's grandson, Gagamela Shabalala.

Beyond performing worldwide, Ladysmith Black Mambazo runs a Mobile Academy that mentors young musicians in all nine provinces, nurturing the isicathamiya choral style that originated among Zulu migrant workers.

The group hopes to inspire future artists to carry South Africa’s cultural identity into the world.

Gagamela expressed his gratitude at being able to perform alongside his relatives and uphold his grandfather' legacy.

"The experience that I’m getting with travelling the world with my fathers and with the group is just amazing," he said.

"Because you just wonder how do they understand what we’re saying and they love the music and it actually literally, as it says, soothes their soul. They just enjoy the music and we all have a universal language, which is music that we all understand.” - Additional reporting by: Celeste Martin

To listen to Ladysmith Black Mambazo in conversation with Clarence Ford on CapeTalk’s Views and News, click the audio player below: