Amandla! Song Leading in South Africa
Growing up in Madagascar, South Africa was never that far away. We heard news of the Apartheid, Nelson Mandela, Desmund Tutu and listened to South Africa music on the radio daily. I have always loved African songs in all its diversity of rhythms and languages and South African choral singing is no exception so when the invitation came from Village Harmony US for me to co-lead a tour, I jumped at the opportunity.
There were 40 of us at the camp: 26 singers from the United States, France, Singapore, the UK and Canada, 9 South African singers who were there as support and 5 leaders- me, Patty Cuyler and Susanna Park from the US, Matlakala Bopape and Bongani Magatyani from South Africa
We spent 1 week intensive at D’Nyala Reserve in the Limpopo province and learnt four songs from Madagascar, eight from South Africa, one from Corsica and one from the US. After that, it was 2 weeks of performance and seeing parts of the country. We performed at concerts almost everyday and sometimes two to three concerts in a day. We sang in schools, prisons and churches. We improvised in supermarkets, gas stations and tourist venues and entertained passers-by.
We danced, laughed, shared, supported each other, explored sounds and places, and ate delicious food. We visited large cities, rural areas, a hill station but singing in Soweto and Kayelitsha touched me deeply. South Africans love their music, love their singing and the variety of songs and dances are mesmerizing. From short to elaborate songs, from traditional to modern folk and the rise of classical, from soft and eery sounds to palpable energy, from sad and melancholic to explosive joy.
And the dancing! Every song has a choreography and no two dances are the same. We performed in Soweto with 11 other choirs and they all sang five songs each, all with dancing and there was NO repeated song or similar choreography. It’s quite extraordinary!
The school choirs were something to behold with 5- 18 year olds giving their all with each and every song. Choir competitions are fierce in South Africa and only the best of the best make it to the finals and everyone wants to get there at least once. The senior choirs in the churches were utterly inspiring and the energy of the youth choirs left us all in awe.
And the way they welcomed the songs from Madagascar humbled me. The singers as well as the audience grabbed those new songs with both hands and ran with it with such an exhilaration I have never encountered. They embraced those songs and made them their own.
Working with the four South African teachers was a real privilege and I took every opportunity to learn as much as I could from them as well as learning from all the other South African singers we met. It was such an enriching experience and one that I am looking forward to repeating! So bring on Village Harmony South Africa 2026! In the meantime, I am looking forward to sharing my Malagasy songs and my new repertoire of South African songs!
