Interview: Breaking Boundaries with Nobuntu
On their tour of America, Nobuntu stopped in Austin to perform at the Bass Concert Hall, where member Duduzile Sibanda spoke about the group’s music, heritage, and being trailblazers in a traditionally male genre.
Written and photographed by David Koeller
Nobuntu poses after their show at Bass Concert Hall on Oct. 24.
Nobuntu is the first female acapella group from Zimbabwe to sing in the South African style of Mbube. Mbube is usually sung by men because it requires deep bass voices. The genre was popularized in the west by Ladysmith Black Mambazo on the album Graceland. Nobuntu’s music combines traditional music from Zimbabwe with jazz and gospel. Their third album, Obabes Bembube, is a dedication to the Mbube genre.
It’s a real pleasure to speak with you — you came all the way from Zimbabwe, and I get to talk to you!
Thank you for having me!
I’m interested to hear how you all formed.
Nobuntu is (a) concept of 10th District Music, the label we work with. Seven years ago, they called for ladies who could sing acapella and the five of us were chosen. It’s been like that for seven years.
And you've had the same five members?
The same five members.
That’s incredible. One thing that stuck out to me was your name. What does it mean?
We come from Bulawayo (in Zimbabwe). Bulawayo is mainly Matabele people who speak Ndebele. Nobuntu is Ndebele. In our language (the prefix) “no” means mother. Ubuntu is a South African term — you’ll find it in a lot of southern African languages. It means kindness, respect, love, humility — it’s an umbrella term for all good things. So, we decided we were going to be the mothers of that, the mothers of ubuntu.
How does that play out in the music you perform?
At first, we didn’t realize how heavy our name is and the weight it carries. When we started traveling, sharing our music, sharing our story, we realized we’re carrying it like it’s our own. It is our own. A mom births, a mom takes care, and carrying that weight befits us so we thought we chose the right name after all.
I can only say I know the lyrics to the songs you sing in English. Could you share some of your favorite lyrics in Ndebele and what they mean?
It’s so hard to choose because we’ve had three albums so far. Our last album is called Obabes Bembube. The titular song, “Obabes Bembube,” is a song that pays homage to the Mbube genre. We decided that since we’ve done two albums inspired by Mbube, we would do a deliberate Mbube album. We are the first women to sing Mbube; the style has always been done by men. So, the song “Obabes Bembube” means the babes of Mbube, and in that song we say how much we love the genre and how much it means to us. It’s not a fashionable genre, but it’s a part of our tradition and it explains a lot about where we come from. So, in the song we’re saying we are the women of that genre.
Tell me more about the process of discovering Mbube.
When we first started out we wanted to understand the genre to do it properly. You have to totally understand something to do it right, but all we knew were the basics. We went to collect music from the older people in our community. It was a process because we had to go to people we look up to, who had been singing for a long time, and ask them about this music. They'd give us a lead, or show us a dance and tell us to “ask so and so,” and we’d go and listen about it and then we’d understand.
Some of these songs and dances used to happen a lot when we were young, and when you get told about them you get to reminisce. So it was quite a journey, but we quite enjoyed it and came out emancipated.
How does that feel to be the first female Mbube acapella group?
It feels amazing! It feels like we’ve opened a lot of doors for other girls who’d like to do this. Mbube on its own is a bass-heavy kind of genre; there has to be a lot of bass. A lot of people asked us how we were going to sing like that and where the bass was going to come from. But we’re doing it, and we have the bass. It’s not going to be the same as the men’s voices but we’re doing it in our own way — nice and colorful!
I’ve seen some of your costumes and I have to say they’re exquisite. Talk to me about them.
Thank you! With the costumes, we don’t want to be like men who put on the same shirt, all seven of them. We love color, and we’re all different shapes, all five of us. So, we pick things that each of us are going to be comfortable in. That’s the basis for our costumes. We each try to wear what we love.
One of our group members, Thandeka, is a clothing designer by trade, so we can tell her what we want and then she completes it. We decided to use our clothing to represent where we’re from. Every year we choose to dress up in different tribes from Southern Africa and tell a story through our costumes. We’ve had Xhosa, Shangani, Zulu, and Venda costumes and this year we introduced Herero and Swati costumes.
Tell me about the thumb piano that you play with.
Yes, it’s called a Mbira and is originally from Zimbabwe. We love the music it makes. Sometimes we write music to it — it’s an instrument just like any other, but the sound of it is very unique and nice. It’s a traditional instrument from Zimbabwe so that’s another reason we brought it aboard.
So you all are mostly based in traditional music from Zimbabwe, but you have some influences in jazz and gospel. How do they play into your music?
Being the women of today, we like to explore not only our tradition but others as well. Growing up, we were influenced by a lot of western music from TV, a lot of American music, a lot of South African, Nigerian, and east East African music, so it’s just a mixed bag of things that we explore every now and then. All five of us are influenced by different things.
Do you have a favorite artist?
It’s so hard to say. When we started doing this, we really didn’t fancy Mbube. We thought we didn’t want to do this boring genre, but when we studied it we realized its importance. We got to know ourselves, where we come from, what our people used to do, and we started loving it very much. As a result, we love everyone who was a pioneer in this music, like Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Black Umfolosi from Zimbabwe. Ami Faku is from South Africa; she’s new to the scene and she has amazing music. I think I do have a particular favorite: Thandiswa Mazwai from South Africa. We all have our own, though.
Talk about some of the differences you’ve noticed about music in America versus Zimbabwe.
Most of the music you’ll find in Zimbabwe can be a bit backwards, which is a good thing. Here a lot of music is noted, and you sing from a score. Must of our music back home is taught orally down generation by generation, from family to family. We don’t have a lot of written music. Maybe 10 years ago music started being written down and children started learning how to read music at schools. If you want to go and learn music after grade nine you’d have to go to a specific institution, maybe one of two in Zimbabwe. When I got here, I realized there were many universities entirely for music. They have every instrument from all around the world, so a musician in America can choose whatever instrument they want to play and whatever direction they want their music to be like. We’re still stuck with what we know and what we have.
So American music and ours will be totally different because of what you have. But that’s a good thing, because I enjoy our music even more now that I know more about it. Our music is still undiscovered — the rhythms, the sounds — it’s amazing no one can find a way to write it down and note it. That’s what makes it magical.
This interview has been minimally edited for clarity and length.
Listen to Nobuntu on Spotify and find them on Twitter and Instagram @nobuntumusic.