Songs from a Zulu Farm

Now in his 70 th year, Ladysmith’s indefat– igable founder Joseph Shabalala shows no signs of slowing down and continues to release an album a year, pretty much as he and his group have done since their first recordings for Gallo almost 40 years ago. Songs from a Zulu Farm finds him revisiting his childhood with a set of traditional folk tunes sung long ago on rural Zulu farms, before the a capella style known as isicathamiya was urbanised, as workers moved to Durban and Johannesburg in search of work.

Many of the 16 songs are animal-related, such as ‘Yangiluma Inkukhu’ (The Biting Chicken), ‘Wemfana’ (Bad Donkey) and ‘Vuka’ (Wake UpLittle Chicks). They’re delivered in Ladysmith’s customary rich harmonies and although Shabalala’s lead voice these days has a thinner timbre than in his prime, the effect is still appealing and his slightly reedier tone rather suits the nursery rhyme playfulness of the material. In fact, it’s impossible not to think of a South African version of Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus, recounting the Zulu equivalents of the Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox tales. The other reference that comes to mind is ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm’, although we probably could have done without the Zulu version of that particular nursery rhyme, which closes the album. On the other hand, that’s possibly a little mean because children will love Ladysmith’s unique take on the song’s various animal noises – Zulu cattle seem to moo unlike any other cows you’ve ever heard.