As Thandiswa Mazwai turns 50 and celebrates 30 years in the music business — fresh from winning four major awards at the South African Music Awards — she reflects on a life and career shaped by purpose. A voice of a generation, Thandiswa is anchored by Pan-Africanism and guided by a deep commitment to heritage preservation.
Her latest album, Sankofa, is derived from a Ghanaian word that means retrieving things of value from the past. Its idea of reclamation is extended in the Sankofa Heritage Festival, which she launches in February. In a heartfelt conversation, she reflects on legacy, culture and community.
YLA: What do the milestones you’re celebrating bring up for you?
Thandiswa: There is a very glaring sense that I am not getting any younger, but I am also humbled by all that I have managed to pack into this little life of mine. I have always been someone with lots of duality. Feminine and masculine. Childlike, while also being an old soul. Brave but scared. Wanting to be invisible while wanting to be seen. Being everything while also feeling like nothing.
These 50 years behind me bear witness to what I have overcome and what I have achieved. They stand as monuments to my bravery and my survival. And what a blessing it is to have spent more than half my life singing and doing what I am certain is one of my life’s highest callings.
YLA: Pan-Africanism guides you intellectually, culturally, spiritually, and aesthetically. What has it revealed to you, and how have you contributed to its evolution?
Thandiswa: I am an African, through and through. This land is my home, and everyone on it my brethren. These are the teachings of my childhood, and I have carried them with me. Travelling across the continent over the years has revealed the incredible knowledge and gifts we have to share with the world — about being in harmony with one another and with nature, and about respect for all things and beings.
I cannot be absolutely sure what my contribution to the Pan-Africanist dream has been, but I have noticed many have attempted to mimic my style or dig into their own cultural archives, speaking the language of ubuNtu, and allowing heritage to shape their creative work This is not my doing alone — it is thousands of years of work done by others to preserve our ways. Ihave simply had the privilege to continue the chorus.
Hugh Masekela was about heritage restoration. His concern was that one day they’d ask African youth who they are, and they’d answer: “I used to be African.”
YLA: Where does your motivation for heritage reclamation come from?
Thandiswa: My mother loved ubuNtu bakhe (her humanity) and she taught me this love as a child. We would take long drives from Soweto back to our ancestral home in the Eastern Cape. We would slaughter sheep or cows for certain occasions or rites of passage. We would sing. All these became very important to me, especially after I lost my mother as a teenager.
Our language and culture are at risk of disappearing as people become more cosmopolitan and less engagement with traditional practices. Sankofa Fest hopes to slowly open a space for shared knowledge and archiving.
YLA: How have you curated the Sankofa Heritage Festival? What experiences are you bringing to it?
Thandiswa: Culture and heritage are things that many — especially city people — engage with only in the month of September, so I wanted to bring it into the so-called Valentine’s month, to decolonise the idea of love and bring it back to community and African pride.
Inviting singer-songwriter and composer Somi [Kakoma] was inspired by her work with Salon Africana and her album dedicated to Miriam Makeba. Mama Makeba is a very big symbol of cultural preservation and Pan-African unity. We are also engaging the technology of the beating drum, which will be raised all night at the festival.
YLA: What’s your hope for the festival?
Thandiswa: My hope is that people go home feeling joyful and proud of what we are as abaNtu. My hope is that we begin to create more and more spaces that centre love and diversity.
The Sankofa Heritage Festival takes place on 28 February at Carnival City, with Msaki and Somi as co-headliners. Tickets are available via Computicket.
