Boom Shaka

Boom Shaka was a pioneering South African kwaito music group consisting of Junior Sokhela, Lebo Mathosa, Theo Nhlengethwa and Thembi Seete. They released their first single "It's About Time" in 1993,^[1] and subsequently released their debut LP, titled "Kwere Kwere" in 1994.^[2] Boom Shaka was one of the most successful bands of the mid-1990s in South Africa. Their music was the soundtrack for many young people in the newly democratic South Africa.^[3] The group was viewed as representing "the hopes and dreams of a people after liberation".^[4] Boom Shaka also achieved international success in London, among other places.^[5]

Boom Shaka, being one of the leading kwaito groups in South Africa, had a strong effect on their young audience. The group was purposefully put together to appeal to a younger audience through their distinctive sound, unique visual style and dance moves. ^[6] The Boom Shaka name is aimed at recognising the power of the king of the Zulu nation, Shaka Zulu, and combining it with the notion of an explosive musical sound.^[7]

Along with their contemporaries, Boom Shaka contributed in forging kwaito into a unique and localised South African music genre.^[8]

The major presence of female vocalists in the group, specifically, Lebo Mathosa and Thembi Seete, have been seen as both modes of female objectification and simultaneously voices for the feminist movement. The style of dancing and dress stirred controversy among South African listeners as it invoked a type of female sexuality that many found degrading. Boom Shaka, however, preferred to see their music as a liberating force. This sentiment is especially reflected in their track 'It's About Time' produced on their debut album, Boom Shaka (1999). Against critiques of the objectification of Boom Shaka's female members, interviews with group member Lebo Mathosa reveal that her performances were intended both to empower herself financially and to challenge gender norms at the time.^[9]

Despite the group's lyrics, many listeners and observers found the discrepancy between their outside image and the message behind the words too great to reconcile.^[10]

South African music producer, Don Laka set up his own record label to evolve the South African music scene beyond the genre of Bubblegum. He then put together a group, containing a DJ, Junior Sokhela, Theo Nhlengethwa, and Prophets of Da City. By manufacturing this group, an early version of Boom Shaka, Don Laka helped form the genre of kwaito.^[4]

Don Laka handpicked the members of the group to achieve the sound that he wanted, and this has been a much-replicated formula for kwaito groups: producers introduce members to one another after being scouted.^[11]

Boom Shaka's leader, Junior Dread, was heavily influenced by Jamaican music through his uncle, who would play Jamaican music loudly and refuse to listen to anything else. Political, musical, social and cultural similarities can be drawn between Boom Shaka's kwaito style and Jamaican dancehall. Notably, both styles have strong associations with the ghetto.^[12]

Boom Shaka, being the first kwaito group and with the nature of the music they created, was able to unleash amongst young black consumers an explosive desire to disengage from the long years of oppression and political protest of the apartheid era. With the seemingly apolitical nature of their music, it allowed the black youth of South Africa to no longer feel restrained by the need to comment on racial injustice and political freedom because the apartheid was over, and they no longer needed or wanted to.^[13]

As the first kwaito group, Boom Shaka contributed greatly to the early trends within this musical style. Part of kwaito's appeal comes from its unique dance moves which were popularised by Boom Shaka. This group created dance moves such as "Chop di grass," a dance which was designed to honour the men who cut grass while highways are being constructed. Boom Shaka traces kwaito's dance style back to traditional African dancing, specifically from the Kwassa Kwassa, an urban dance originating in Zaire. This dance style has been seen as controversial and over sexualised by some, but it is undoubtedly a large part of kwaito's success.^[14]

After Boom Shaka left the kwaito-oriented Kalawa Jazmee Records in 1998 because of controversy surrounding the creative ownership of material and disputes over their record royalties, the group sought a new recording contract that would invest in their vision and work to promote them internationally. When they could not find what they were looking for, they decided to do it themselves and signed a one-album, 12-month publishing deal with PolyGram Records and hired their own management. In the process they emerged as the only South African musicians outside of the country's biggest-selling artist, gospel star Rebecca Malope, to own 75% of their master recordings and 100% copyright on their new material.^[15] Boom Shaka was again ground-breaking and set a precedent in an industry that was known for taking unfair advantage of their recording artists.

Despite their success, the group broke up after one of their lead singers, Lebo Mathosa decided to start her own solo career in 2000. She achieved great success until she was killed in a car crash in 2006 at the age of 29.

Although Boom Shaka was seen as apolitical in comparison to music of the apartheid era, they were still able to stir controversy in other ways. In 1997, the group caused controversy by creating and performing a kwaito version of the South African national anthem "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" at the South African Music Awards. Reactions to the performance were divided, as the charged lyrics paired with skimpy outfits fueled the debate between liberation and degradation. Some viewed this as a prostitution of African culture for commercial purposes but the group saw it in a different way:

"It's a little bit of a misunderstanding. We're not dissing anything, this is our own version; one for the young people", stated band leader Junior in an interview. "Our parents know the lyrics to that song, but a lot of kids don't, even though they stand at school and hear it sung every morning. Young people's reaction to our version of the song has been incredible, they love it. And this way they'll learn the lyrics too."^[15]

Boom Shaka's performance was described in an article in Mail & Guardian: "Stylishly clad in the deepest of blue velvet suits over lacy bras and flimsy white blouses held in place by at least one button — Boom Shaka's Thembi and Lebo (the two women members of the group) had walked slowly to the front of the large Civic Theatre Stage and then stopped, each raising a clenched fist in the air. A pounding beat kicked in, sending a wave of motion down the girl's bodies."^[15]

Another journalist, Vukile Pokwane, also described the performance with a focus on the group's female members: "Free from the usual groups of males with a banner exhorting the two sassy and sexy girls in the group to take their tops off, the group executed the anthem with supple energy coupled with flexible choreography, leaving those with stiffer waists aghast."^[16]

Boom Shaka's performance has now been credited as "moving the [National Anthem] from solemnity to celebration while also using experimentation to represent the unfinished business of liberation."^[17]

Xavier Livermon writes in his book Kwaito Bodies: Remastering Space and Subjectivity in Post-Apartheid South Africa (2020) that "through their performance, Boom Shaka insisted that the state be enacted more inclusively, pushing against its heteropatriarchal formation. In speeding up the overall tempo of the song and performing it in an aurally unrecognizable register, Boom Shaka appears to move past the moment of triumph and offer an almost chaotic rendering of the anthem. The faster tempo performs the labor of simultaneously marking the moment of achievement of moving the song from solemnity to celebration while also, in its chaotic unfamiliar rendering, revealing the unfinished business of liberation. Hence, the aural register of Boom Shaka's version of "Nkosi" refuses to dwell in the moment of triumph through liberation and instead begins to ask questions about the practices of freedom. Boom Shaka's performance asks difficult questions about exactly whose interests the new post-apartheid state will serve.^[18]

• 1994: Kwere Kwere (LP)
• 1996: It's Our Game (No Need To Claim)
• 1998: Aint No Stoppin' (Us Now)
• 1998: Words of Wisdom
• 1999: Boom Shaka