This weekend, on November 2, Kujenga, the fast-rising star on the South African jazz scene, thrilled audiences at the BMW Art Generation at Nirox Sculpture Park. The event featured an intergenerational conversation with artists Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi and Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, live performances by Kujenga and Thandiswa Mazwai, and a variety of food and fashion offerings. In anticipation of the event, I had a powerful conversation with twin brothers Owethu and Zwide Ndwandwe on the core values that continue to propel their ensemble.
Thembeka Heidi Sincuba: Could you tell us a bit about how the band came together?
Owethu Ndwandwe: We started playing at places like churches, we figured out we had the same interest in using music. This was around 2015-2016. When that happened, we just wanted to explore and play with each other as a band, starting off with covers of songs that we liked and listened to. The guitarist mentioned that he had a friend from high school who played drums, and if we needed a drummer, we could just get him. It started off with very small gigs like that, as I mentioned, at churches and schools. Once we felt we had a groove with each other, we began asking at restaurants in our area—more popular places in the city for musicians to play. From then on, we could see a band forming, and as time moved forward, we started writing our own music and released our first album in 2019. So that was the stretch from 2016 to 2019 when the band had formed.
THS: What inspired the name?
Zwide Ndwandwe: Our identity as Africans and our love for African music and culture. We already knew that our sound was going to be heavily inspired by African music from across the continent, including music from North Africa, as well as highlights from West Africa and Southern Africa. Of course, Maskandi from here in Southern Africa is part of our influence, the Cape jazz tradition as well; Cape Malay music. We just knew that there was a Pan-African desire on our part to have our identity centred on that. We were very fortunate to have platforms and tools such as Google, to help us with translations for words we were looking for in different African languages.
That’s when we came across the word “kujenga.” Our drummer at the time, Riley found the word and explained that it means “to build,” but it can also mean “to create.” We thought that was very beautiful. It resonated with our mission to build a community and create worthwhile experiences through our art. We aimed to centre and orient ourselves, not just as a band but as a grassroots movement. The spirit of communalism is really symbolized in the title “Kujenga,” and it helps express our identity as Africans.
THS: What was the significance of coming from KZN, but then growing up in the Cape? Did that affect your approach to putting the band together?
ON: I think it was purely circumstantial that we just happened to move there. And then our guitarist was also in the same area. I would say it doesn’t really play a big role in the music that we played, but we did kind of realize that there was a lack of artistic creation and movements within that area. Even currently, the places that we are placed closer to the city, the horn section is closer to the city. I guess, you can draw inspiration from a place. Yeah, that’s how I see it. I don’t think it really plays a big role in that, besides that’s just where we found each other.
ZN: Like the role that it plays, it actually made us define our own project and sound in ways that are not so definable. It’s not so important if you’re coming from environments, communities, or backgrounds in which institutions and traditions define who you are. If you’re in the city of Cape Town and you come from the Cape Flats and the townships, there is already a rich history when it comes to the arts. Black music comes from the Black and brown townships and communities within the different regions of South Africa.
In Cape Town, particularly the Cape Flats, we draw from this rich history. The marching band is a part of the history of the Cape and its people. They embody a rich, field-based music tradition that involves horn instruments and drones. This then connects to the traditional indigenous sounds of the people in the Cape, and that’s obviously important.
THS: Kujenga consists of mostly Black people, but there’s also a gender representation aspect. Is that intentional, or did it happen organically?
ON: Probably organic. We thought about the ways in which something that starts organically is then required to become intentional in order for us to build the world. The beauty of it is that it’s not like we’re sitting in meetings having discussions about how we work this particular element. The larger conception and understanding and perception of the band. We care about what’s safe for Black people, poor people, trans people, colonized people. I think the energy that comes from the shows speaks to people looking to resonate with a world in which oppression is not a weight that exists over us.
We have to actively work towards building. We can’t be passive about it. On stage, whether we’re making our remarks about our stances or where we stand on situations of geopolitics with Palestine, Sudan or Congo, even here in South Africa, when we’re speaking out against the nationalism situation, which promotes an Afrophobic agenda. We have to be intentional so that no one at the show is confused about where we stand. I think it was Sékou Touré who said that to build a revolution, you have to be in community first. No matter how enlightened your music and stance may be, it comes from actually being connected to others. That’s a big intention.
The Cape Town-based afro-jazz band whose name is derived from Swahili meaning “to build,” reflected their mission to create meaningful experiences for listeners through their music. The band consists of Owethu Ndwandwe (lead vocals and keys), his twin brother Zwide Ndwandwe (bass), Thane Smith (electric guitar), and Skhumbuzo Qamata (drums). Their cool sound which blends various genres from Africa and her diaspora, is an unbelievably encouraging symbol of what could come from the legacies of Africanism and Black improvisational music.
