Sing Africa!
What does it mean?
The words to Shosholoza are in Zulu, one of South Africa's 11 official languages. The song says "Go forward! Over the mountains to work!"
Sho...sho...sho...
Shosholoza is an old miner's song, originally sung by groups of men from the Ndebele tribe who travelled by steam train from their homes in Zimbabwe to work in South Africa's diamond and gold mines. The Ndebele people live in the northern regions of South Africa and across the northern border into Zimbabwe. The Ndebele language is closely related to Zulu. As well as urging workers to "go forward" the 'sho' sounds in the word Shosholoza are onomatopoeic, reminiscent of the sound of the train described in the song. Listen carefully for the steam train sounds in the recording of Shosholoza by the Drakensberg Boys' Choir. Nobody knows who wrote the song, or exactly when it was written, but we do know that South Africa's mining industry and the development of steam railways in the mining areas both began in the late 1800s.
Many different versions of the song have evolved, and the song is sometimes sung "stimela si phume Rhodesia", Zimbabwe's former colonial name. Some people argue that the song describes the journey to the mines in South Africa, while others say it describes the return to Zimbabwe.
Researchers Booth and Nauright tell us that
Zulu workers later took up the song to generate rhythm during group tasks and to alleviate boredom and stress.
(see Booth, D. and Nauright, J. 2007.
Embodied Identities: Sport and Race in South Africa in
Contours: A Journal of the African Diaspora, Spring 2003, Vol.1, No.1, accessed 09/08/07.)
Men working as labourers often used songs to help them work while they were digging,
swinging their pickaxes in time with the music. Work songs such as Shosholoza are often sung in 'call and response' style;
one man singing a solo line and the rest of the group responding by copying him.
In Familiarity is the Kingdom of the Lost, Dugmore Boetie's autobiographical novel about growing up as a black South African in the 1930s and 40s, a scene is described in which prisoners sing Shosholoza as they are forced to work with pickaxes.
Chocholoza!' Chocholoza is the song that South African blacks sing under hardship. Especially by long-term convicts when engaged in hard labour. Chocholoza is like a child with no parents. Nobody knows when or where it originated from, but what everyone knows is that when there is some kind of deep-rooted ache in the heart, the first thing to visit the lips will be 'Chocholoza'. The song with no beginning and no end, as old as misery itself.
This mystery song of dark ages was passed down to us by our ancestors through generations of hardship. Its sound rises from the very depths of a tortured soul. It encourages faith to take up when hope threatens to leave off. The word Chocholoza means 'Go forward' or 'Make way for the next man'.
'Chocholoza!' The convicts in the first row were beginning to sing in high-pitched, almost soprano voices. This was the cue for the rest of us to lift our pickaxes high above our heads in one smooth motion and hold them suspended in mid-air. The more experienced convicts would twist the handles of the picks with one deft movement of the wrist, causing the two sharp points to blur as one in the air. Then they held them poised for the earthward drive.
The bass voices repeated, 'Chocholoza!' The signal to strike. The pickaxes came down swiftly in one smooth motion like conducted lightning bolts piercing the stubborn ground with a forty-in-one sound. 'Kwezantaba!' (At those far away mountains). Up went the axes to remain poised in the air, waiting for the bass voices to repeat the word 'Kwezantaba' before coming down in rhythmical precision.
The singing went on: "Wena uya goloza" (You're a cheeky man). The bass voices would echo the words. 'Goba uya baleka' (Because you're running away). The bass voices repeat... 'Chocholoza!'
In his autobiography, former South African President Nelson Mandela describes how he sang Shosholoza as he worked in a quarry during his imprisonment on Robben Island. He describes it as "a song that compares the [apartheid] struggle to the motion of an oncoming train" and goes on to explain that "the singing made the work lighter". Mandela, N. 1994. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Little, Brown and Co., p. 394.
The South African Drakensberg Boys' Choir singing Shosholoza
Theme Song
Today, Shosholoza has other associations for South Africans. In 1995, the South African Springboks rugby team reached the final stages of the World Cup, and rugby fans used the song to encourage their team. Shosholoza became the team's official theme music, and when the Springboks beat New Zealand in the final, the song came to symbolise nation-building, as Blacks and Whites joined together in celebration as their team lifted the world cup. Today Shosholoza is still sung at sporting events, and has become something of an unofficial second national anthem for South Africa, the official one being Enoch Sontonga's song "Nkosi Sikelele Africa"", written in 1897.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing Nkosi Sikelele Africa & Shosholoza
The adoption of this Ndebele migrant worker song as a sporting anthem reflected President Mandela's hope that international sport would help to build a South African nation in which all people are equal.
Who recorded it?
Shosholoza has been recorded many times since Eric Gallo established South Africa's first recording studio in the 1930s. In a recent interview, Joe Mogotsi of South African vocal quartet the Manhattan Brothers stated his belief that his group were the very first to record the song, on the Gallo label. Other artists to have recorded Shosholoza include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Peter Gabriel, PJ Powers, Black Umfolosi, the Soweto Gospel Choir and the Drakensberg Boys Choir.
Practise Your Part
- Learn the WORDS one by one
- Hear the whole song
- Learn the SOPRANO part line by line
- Hear the whole SOPRANO part
- Learn the ALTO part line by line
- Hear the whole ALTO part
Task Idea: Design a music video for Shosholoza
- Now that you know the story behind the song, design a story-board for a music video for Shosholoza. You might want to show the miners at work, the train rumbling through the mountains, or perhaps the rugby fans celebrating.
- Draw a series of 6 images to illustrate how your video will look.
- Give each image a sentence to describe how the finished video will look.
- Extension idea: In a group act out your video while singing Shosholoza.
Discography
Shosholoza features on:
- The Drakensberg Boys' Choir: The Very Best of the Drakensberg Boys. DBCS, 2004.
- Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Long Walk to Freedom. Heads Up, 2006.
- Soweto Gospel Choir: African Spirit. Shanachie, 2007.