By Jasper Cook
One day, in mid-conversation, Bra Jackson asked me: ‘What size are you?’ I found the question disturbingly personal. ‘I really don’t know what you mean or why you’d ask’. He repeated the question. He appeared guileless and sincere, but, still rather miffed, I retorted: ‘You tell me what size you are first, and then maybe I will answer’.
Instantly, he responded: ‘I am forty-eight years old’. ‘Ooooh. Kay’. Relief. ‘I am fifty-one years old’. With that out of the way, conversation continued. Next to his mattress on the concrete floor of the shed we shared was a tiny FM radio, which he listened to every night.
One morning, as we drove, he talked about a radio discussion the previous evening about the death of Steve Biko in prison. We agreed that consequences would surely follow. Since this discussion took place in the late apartheid days, we have seen some of those.
Bodhlumlilo (Belching Fire)
Around that time, the African Jazz Pioneers recorded Bodhlumlilo, composed by Madoda Gxabeka. At the time he was playing keyboard, but his first stint in the band was on drums. The song itself warns of consecquences.
Giant Mmolokomme, the vocalist, cracked the warning out sternly: ‘we are languishing sick and injured in hospital, consequences will follow’. The chorus of consequences, beginning with ‘Sekuqhum’umkhonwekati’, is translated loosely as:
Emerges a gun
Emerges belching fire
We will take this kit [guns] now
these are for us
Rap
The part i loved most was a chant, beginning with:
Sisa pita nyongo …
Both the band and the session singers laid down that chant in the recording studio, with great gusto. I could cope with the verse and chorus, but – having been born and bred in KZN – I was accustomed to more leisurely isiZulu, and could not trust myself with the very quick pronunciation of the isiXhosa chant.
It was an exciting song to perform — band leader Ntemi Piliso explained that this style of chant was a well-known tradition, and that he himself was convinced that it was the root of rap. Since the Pioneers was concerned with playing our own South African music in the face of the torrent of what Ntemi regarded as ‘bubble gum music’, he felt it important for people to know that rap was in place from ancient times, and it should be known that it came from Africa.
The lyrics
Sasibus’ezilalini
Namhla sawthethelelwa nguwe mfana x2
Yhoooooo! Bayasilandela×2
Namhl’abanyabasekho,basezotolongweni,
basezibhedlela sebelimala njalo ×2
Yhooooo! Bayasilandela ×2
Namhl’abanyabasekho basezitolongweni,
basezibhedlela sebelimala njalo ×2
Yhoooooo! Bayasilandela ×4
Sekuqhum’umkhonwekati
Kwaqhuma nobhodl’umlilo
Khilikithatha khilikithi waw’umngani wam ×4
Sisiphitha nyongo esabonwa ngabaphathi abaphezulu
Mama wheeshu ×4
Sekuqhum’umkhonwekati
Kwaqhuma nobhodlumlilo
Khilikithatha khilikithi
Oh waw’umngani wam ×4
WHAAAASHAAA
Thanks to Ms Sara Phumelele for transcribing. I have always been charmed with the imagery of ‘umkhonwekati’, literally translated as ‘corner/shoulder of a cat’, and meaning ‘gun/automatic pistol’.
This is an edited version of an article on Jasper Cook’s website, AndThisIsJazz. Used with permission.