Bongeziwe Mabandla

Over the past decade, South Africa’s Bongeziwe Mabandla has steadily built a career that has seen him become known as the enigmatic spirit of African Soul whose fanbase extends across the world.

For this award-winning artist, the impulse to create has propelled him to record a trio of critically acclaimed albums, perform on an array of homegrown and international stages, become a sought-after creative collaborator and expand his talents into film when he joined the set of a film being shot in Kinshasa by musician and filmmaker BALOJI. In 2023, Mabandla will add to this extraordinary output with a new album, preceded by the single “Noba Bangathini”, releasing late January.

“Everything I do is measured against how artistic and interesting it is – both for me and my audience,” says Mabandla, and each meticulously calibrated step in his journey is evidence of how seriously he takes that.

Releasing 11 years after his debut record, “Noba Bangathini”, for instance, signals the onset of a fresh creative surge from Mabandla and producer Tiago Correia-Paulo – one that effortlessly springboards his music into a rich and captivating terrain where synthesisers or drum loops are as vital as Mabandla’s signature acoustic guitar.

That Mabandla is a creative explorer, constantly seeking new ways of expression, was also evident on his third album, iimini (“days”). Recorded with Correia-Paulo, iimini’s 12-song cycle untethered Mabandla from the Afro-Folk of his early music and took his music into a realm of experimentation and creativity that simultaneously roots itself in the deep and fertile soil of his folk instincts and Correia-Paulo’s roving eye for electronic music’s loveliest aspects. Singles like “zange”, “masiziyekelele” and “jikeleza” led the way for music lovers to discover iimini’s beauty and the album earned unstinting critical praise. Writing in New Frame, Rofhiwa Maneta described Iimini as an “exploration of love, its animating power, limitations and its inevitable end” while Butchie Seroto called the album “captivating” in a glowing review for Music in Africa.

iimini won Mabandla his second South African Music Award (SAMA) when the album was named Best Alternative Album in July 2021. In the months surrounding the album’s release, there were further explorations of his creative boundaries and evidence of his musical impact with a series of wonderful remixes including Dwson’s “Ndanele (Dwson Dub Remix)” (nominated for a 2021 SAMA in the category Remix of the Year), Muzi’s wonderful take on “Mini Esadibana Ngayo”, DJ Lag’s propulsive remix of “ndiyakuthanda (12.4.19)” and a lovely remix of “zange” by Guatemalan artist Mose.

On its release in 2020 Iimini joined 2012’s Umlilo and 2017’s Mangaliso as the recorded output of an artist who has been described as a “modern miracle” by Radio France Internationale (RFI) and has been profiled in prestigious UK music magazine, Songlines, among other publications.

Indeed, Mabandla first came to the attention of audiences outside South Africa when he was named one of 10 finalists in the 2011 Radio France Internationale Discoveries Awards. That was on the cusp of the release of Umlilo (“fire”) when Mabandla was refining his performing skills and songwriting – the latter then a gorgeous, understated mix of Xhosa lyrics with traditional music and folk stylings.

Mabandla’s early musical influences had come from his childhood in the rural town of Tsolo in the Eastern Cape where he grew up singing in church, at school and at home. A move to Johannesburg to study drama at AFDA saw him continue exploring expressions of musical storytelling through a range of artists including Tracy Chapman, The Fugees, Jabu Khanyile, Bongo Maffin and Busi Mhlongo.

On its release in 2017, his second album Mangaliso, (meaning “marvel” or “miracle”) signalled Mabandla’s extraordinary musical reach. A significant amount of the album’s success came from his collaboration with producer Correia-Paulo, a Mozambican living in Johannesburg who had established himself as a masterful musician, songwriter and producer through his work with Tumi and the Volume and 340ml.

Mabandla and Correia-Paulo’s working relationship quickly evolved into a true creative collaboration – and it was no surprise when Mangaliso won Mabandla the 2018 South African Music Award for Best Alternative Music Album. Among the tracks that resonated with devotees was single “Ndokhulandela”, which is Mabandla’s most streamed songs on Spotify (over 14 million streams) as well as “Bawo Wam” a collaboration with Spoek Mathambo that has won two awards – Best Music Video at the Capital City Black Film Awards and at the Jozi Film Fest.

Live, Mabandla is mesmerising – whether solo or with his band – and is every bit the enigmatic spirit of African soul. “To watch Bongeziwe Mabandla step onto stage is to witness the transmutation of the abstract into the physical,” wrote Maneta in New Frame.

In 2022 he played the Safiko Festival in Reunion for the sixth time – a measure of his sustained, and growing, appeal for audiences. In the same year he performed at the African Book Festival in Berlin, along with a series of European dates, several sold-out tours on home soil and a beautiful live collaboration Blick Bassy from Cameroon that brought music fans a new perspective on their latest works.

Mabandla’s live dates in 2022 built on a performing career that included the 2019 Reeperbahn Festival (Germany), Lake of Stars (Malawi), five dates at Afrovibes Festival (Netherlands), Womex (Finland),and the Oslo World Festival (Norway). In November 2019, he performed to a sold-out audience at London’s 100 Club along with eight more dates in France (including sold-out shows in Paris and Strasbourg), and his first sold out show in Zurich, Switzerland. In spite of the pandemic constraints of 2020 and 2021, the past three years have seen Mabandla continue to build his domestic and international live career with the sold out sign put up at shows in the UK, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland in 2021 while his November 2021 SA tour became the among the fastest selling of a solo contemporary South African artist. A highlight of 2020 was a moving performance for the ColorsxStudios’ HOME/BRED series during the global lockdown that was later featured in the Best Of edition of this global platform.

In 2022 Mabandla worked on the film Augure, playing the character of Ezra in a film directed by BALOJI, a Congolese-Belgian rapper, artist and filmmaker and collaborated with Sun-El Musician on the new song “Umhle” to provide the perfect soundtrack for SA Tourism’s “Live Again” Global Brand campaign. He’s now on the cusp of releasing new music into the world and moving forward with the continuously blooming artistic expression of one of Africa’s most original artists.