Here’s what I find transcendent about art: the immersive wandering of interpretation. From how an artist can decipher a simple day in their life as a muse for a body of work to how the comprehension of that body of work engages the audience to contemplate the significance of their stories, it is often the murky dance towards unity that unlocks a depth of conversation and introspection.
Born Samkelo Lelethu Mdolomba, award-winning singer and songwriter Samthing Soweto was but a mere 5 years of age when South Africa reached a critical turning point in its history. The apartheid regime had been dismantled and negotiations for a new democratic nation were well under way. While South Africa and the world witnessed moments like the late uTata Nelson Mandela being released from prison, little Samkelo, in all his innocence, only had eyes for his cartoons and aspirations to be like his older brother, whom he looked to as a father figure.
Samthing Soweto | SUPPLIED
This is the genesis of his latest album, Touch Is A Move: Good Morning, an intimate musing of a day in the life of Samkelo in 1990s Soweto. After a five-year hiatus from his SAMA-Award-winning album Isphithiphithi, Samthing Soweto curates audio-cinema in the form of an album and takes us through a timeless seance into the complex spirit and circumstances that characterise his upbringing. Following an intimate moment with his older brother, uBhuth’ Lungisa, who is woken up by little Samkelo’s request to watch cartoons on a Saturday morning, Samthing Soweto delves into the current heartbeat of kasi culture, amapiano, to serenade his audience with heartwarming compositions.
Samthing Soweto has a near-unconscious yet universal understanding of how the heartbeat of kasi life is how the black soul unites when there is a celebration. Whether it is a traditional function relative to one’s unique culture, a graduation, the purchase of a new house/car or the sacred institution of marriage there is a delicacy in which “Ndandatho”, “Ama Get Down” and “Don’t Wanna Let Go” align themselves as the soundtrack of choice to immortalise momentous occasions filling them with unbridled love. The songwriting, orchestral melodies in “Ndandato” (a nod to his choir foundations) and production, which seamlessly dance between Amapiano and Afropop, set the perfect intergenerational tone of the album and its core narrative: the vibrancy of the kasi when love, in all its forms, is celebrated.
Stream “Ndandatho” here:
As the album threads on, we are invited into the dynamics of sibling meddling, especially on little Samkelo’s part. We are introduced to his sisters through a hilarious “Sister Sister 1” interlude where the sisters sing along to “Don’t Wanna Let Go” while doing their hair in preparation for the Mr. Soweto contest. Bridged by “Swi” materialising as a flirtatious courtship with an old flame, “Sister Sister 2” continues the conversation of the sisters who’s intent for Mr. Soweto pageant is to catch the attention of a boy named Arthur and Samkelo uses this to his advantage to continue his quest to watch cartoons all day.
A neat tie to this act of the album is the coming-of-age conversation between father and daughter, cautioning her about the dangers of men, the chart-topping “Amagents.” This juxtaposition between past and present reveals the power of retrospect. Samthing Soweto has taken the observations of his sister’s engagement with their male counterparts over the years, his own relationship experiences and social outlook to relay the predatory dangers men can and often are, especially as a symptom of toxic masculinity. Though reduced to social media fodder in our overstimulated online community, the prevalance of poisonous masculinity has endured through the echoes of history and one of it’s diving factors, a trait synonymous with all human nature is the need for acceptance and belonging which brings us to the second encounter with Samkelo and Bhut’ Lungisa.
Stream “Ama Gents” here:
“Bhut’Lungisa 1” finds little Samkelo calling his brother to notify him of the arrival of his friends and the longing to go with him, perhaps to view Soweto life through his big brother’s eyes.
Bridged by the Afropop serenade “Come Duze” which is reminiscent of the late icon Lebo Mathosa’s “I Love Music,” Samthing Soweto croons for intimacy and affection complimented by a nostalgic nod of old school House Music, a landmark of kasi life. “Bhut Lungisa 2” unpacks what the world is through his brother’s eyes, a destitute land where opportunity is guided by a desperation for survival. In the pursuit of living it large in December, Bhut’ Lungisa and his friends plan to commit a crime to earn money, and little Samkelo catches wind of this, threatening to report it to their mother.
“325” likens a love interest (presumably Bhut’ Lungisa’s) to the iconic BMW 3 Series 325is car for the qualities they share as an object of desire and ghetto fabulous perfection. With a “drive me crazy” undertone, it is here that we ruminate on the poetry of aspiration for the simple things a boy from the kasi draws from to experience and express love. The longing which underlies “325” explodes into a tenderness in “Cela ‘Sithandane” where Samthing Soweto sets the scene thematically to represent Bhut’ Lungisa asking his love interest for them to be in a relationship. One must appreciate how the vulnerability of Soweto’s pen and the production imbued by the presence of trumpets, respecting the longstanding history of Jazz and Soul music in township culture, tie the narrative of a day in 90s Soweto life with profound memorabilia.
Stream “325” here:
“Sis’Thembi” made me ponder our mothers’ awareness of what sons are doing when no one is looking The fact that she didn’t want to have a conversation with little Samkelo about the crime his brother was engaging in tells me that not only was she acutely aware of it, but was equally trying to protect the child from being too conscious of the harsh realities of kasi life out of fear perhaps that he will follow the same path given its socialisation of normalcy. “Yebo” and “Deda” arrive as an intimate curtain call of the album, winding down a day in Soweto with a soothing palette of Afropop nuanced by affirmations of unwavering love, consideration and confronting the darkness life deals us. In the last moments, we are brought together by the enduring spirit of love, which has seen the black spirit through centuries of trauma and uncomfortable change.
Stream “Deda” here:
Touch Is A Move: Good Morning wouldn’t be complete without a moment of spirituality.
“Goodnight” starts with a prayer by little Samkelo’s grandmother and becomes a monologue between the innocent boy and God. Struggling to find love and acceptance in his family, he yearns for a sense of belonging and laments on how he misses his absent father who he’d hoped would return with the sweets and bicycle he promised him when he left, he starts to enter a stage of questioning everything around him and despite his youth, become lucid to the different nuances that they all experience life, all of this before the innocent monologue transitions back to the grandmother who prayers over the ill, the homeless and the politicians etc. And therein lies the beauty of a day in Soweto that is still surviving generational trauma, sometimes the little things like nitpicking over how troublesome the children are filling the house with laughter is all the medicine a family needs.
Touch Is A Move: Good Morning is a love letter to a day in one of the most revolutionary townships in South Africa. Born from patience, silence, recalibration and collaboration with producers like John Lundun, Ross Darkin, Christer Kobedi and co-writers like Anzo Ngubeni who worked on the lead single “Deda,” it is a canvas that reflects the depth behind what we consider everyday township life and the richness of the stories they carry. This archived lens is one we a considerable amount of South Africans can relate to, one that makes us soothe the wounds of our generational trauma and perhaps, paint our aching hearts with the hope of a brighter tomorrow, just like our forefathers did before the 90s, during the 90s and well into the marred modern day of democracy. Samthing Soweto pays homage to his roots, alchemises its pain, and fosters an appreciation for the small stuff, like a Saturday morning with cartoons and beauty pageants.
Stream Touch Is A Move: Good Morning here: https://platoon.lnk.to/touch-is-a-move-good-morning
