Amampondo

South Africa counts Amampondo among its foremost musical collectives. Donning customary attire and playing instruments fashioned by hand, the eleven-member outfit has turned the longstanding Xhosa musical idiom into a worldwide sensation. Nelson Mandela numbered the group among his preferred acts; they circled the globe on tour and represented their country at the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dizu Zingulu Plaatjies, born February 5, 1957, and serving as principal vocalist, percussionist, and dancer, gathered the ensemble in 1979. Their name, rendered as “People of Mpondo,” denotes the Xhosa Kingdom along Africa’s Eastern Cape, the region where most members first sang together in church choirs. They refined their approach by busking the streets of Cape Town and gave their initial public shows at the Scratch Club in 1981. Two years later they traveled to Johannesburg for a Market Theater engagement that stretched from a scheduled fortnight into six years. By 1985 their itinerary already included Israel and Taiwan.

An internationally televised appearance at Nelson Mandela’s seventieth-birthday event at Wembley in 1988 was followed, upon the band’s return, by a four-year performance prohibition ordered by the ANC’s cultural desk. Throughout the restriction they concentrated on school-based programs that conveyed traditional South African culture. An album recorded with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Give Praise Where Praise Is Deserved, prompted Tutu to secure a temporary lifting of the ban. After subsequent tours of Germany and France, however, the ANC reinstated the boycott. Mandela’s endorsement—prompted by a video he had watched while imprisoned—eventually eased the difficulties, and after his release his repeated recommendations opened bookings around the world.

In 1994 Robert Trunz, then owner of B&W Music, heard the group. Contractual ties delayed an immediate signing, yet he placed Amampondo on his newly founded label M.E.L.T. 2000 at the earliest opportunity. Their first release for the imprint, Drums for Tomorrow, appeared in 1997 under the production of Cameroonian drummer Bruce Wassy.

Outside Amampondo, Plaatjies and marimba player, percussionist, and vocalist Mzwandile Qotoyi have joined forces on separate ventures, among them the Bootleg.net album Ethno Trance Live. Plaatjies’ niece Lulu Lungiswa Plaatjies, born in 1973, has contributed lead and background vocals, percussion, and dance to the ensemble since the age of nine and has lately finished a forthcoming solo album.