Kwela
Kwela is a happy, often pennywhistle based, street music from southern Africa with jazy underpinnings. It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s.
As a youngster I was told that the infectious kwela dance rhythms of the South Africa of my youth came from a word that means 'step up'. This name is tinged with irony, and reflects the strong, happy spirit that characterises the new South Africa, which overcomes adversity with good humour.
It derives from the order, often from the police, when bundling people into their trucks. Step up!
The music is rooted in Africa, but later adaptations of this and many other African folk idioms have permeated western music (listen to 'Gracelands' by Paul Simon) and give modern South African music, particularly jazz, much of its distinctive sound and lilting swagger.
So why the pennywhistle? An obvious attraction was being cheap and portable, but it also lent itself as a solo or an ensemble instrument. Maybe the popularity of the pennywhistle was perhaps based on the fact that flutes of different kinds had long been traditional instruments among the peoples of the more northerly parts of South Africa, and the pennywhistle thus enabled the swift adaptation of folk tunes into the new marabi-influenced music.
The word "kwela" is taken from the Zulu for "get up", though in township slang it also referred to the police vans, the "kwela-kwela". It could be an invitation to join the dance as well as serving as a warning! It is said that the young men who played the pennywhistle on street corners also acted as lookouts to warn those enjoying themselves in the shebeens of the arrival of the police.
Artists such as Lemmy Mabaso werre renowned for their pennywhistle skills, and Spokes Mashiyane was maybe most prominent with his kwela pennywhistle tunes.
