Bafo evokes divine kindred spirit
Arts Roots, Identity, VoicePosted by sangweni on 2026-03-19 17:02:20 | Last Updated by sangweni on 2026-04-18 16:09:48
Kokee to Madala - How are you?
Madala - I am alive like a shilling - Ngiphila njengo-sheleni (sic).
Kokee to Sibusile - How far do you come with Bafo, this father of mine?
“Ei, I come a long way, so grateful for dad (sic) to accept me and breastfeed(sic) me, and teach me a lot, not only in music but in life as a whole. For me, it’s a long way but a humble beginning. I want to work with the grandmaster.â€
Kokee to Sibusile - As a student of Bafo, what have you learned from Bafo, besides the guitar?
“Yoh, where does one start in trying to articulate the role of a Baobab tree?
It’s so big. It’s so important. It's extraordinary. It’s iconic. It gives so much.â€
I see Mtimande in that light - as a person who also loves planting and does a lot of research on plants. So, the Baobab really grows for a long time. in its life.
What is amazing about the tree is that each and every part of the tree can be used. So Mtimande is that. He is not just a great guitarist, but he is a great father.
He is not just a great father, but he is a great friend. He is not just someone who is super-disciplined, but he is also super funny. He is just truly, not just me, and many others learning from him like me, really a special being.
I personally feel God took time when he created him, and focused on his heart, and obviously gave him these fingers that play amazing guitar.
So, to us Bafo is really beyond a diamond in the rough, beyond university, encyclopedia. He is just a divine kindred spirit.
Xaba is one of the many students of lately professor Madala Kunene, affectionately known as Bafo (Big brother) in the universal music circles. Mtimande is his clan’s name.
Kokee to Madala - “He is talking very well about you Bafo. He respects you a lot.
Kunene: to Kokee - Is that so, thanks, the problem is, he is talking in English, I don’t understand, I would be laughing too.â€
He then plays the typical Bafo tune Baboon on the Tree a song rooted in Zulu folklore.
He strums his amazing guitar, emitting haunting, howling, animal-like sounds interspersed with seemingly ghastly echoes permeating the stillness of an expansive forest.
It is a forest replete with indigenous knowledge in these two-of-a-kind guitar magicians, dispensing ancestral gifts that can only make the world a better place for the sake of humanity.
It remains a human right violation that Kunene, whose Zulu folklore, maskanda music tinged with jazz and Blues sounds, was glaringly omitted from defunct Radio Bantu, Radio Zulu, and sadly present-day Ukhozi FM.
Is it out of ignorance or negligence that latter-day Ukhozi FM is denying Bafo airplay in Sigiya Ngengoma every Saturday morning, whose presenters wax lyrical about tribality and vulgar Maskanda artists, promoting parochial and sometimes sexist views. Uzoncengwa Unyoko, refers.
It is now a moot point that the University of KwaZulu-Natal bestowed on him an honorary degree to recognize his out-of-this-world contributions to heritage, culture, and the Zulu ethos, after more than 50 years of work locally and abroad.
His caveat, out of a lifetime lot, was his inclusion in the inaugural Montreal Jazz Festival in Northern Cape, South Africa, in 2026.
Is it true, maybe, that good things come to those who wait? Patience is a virtue; otherwise.
Madala Kunene, a product of Mkhumbane kwela and marabi days in and around Durban, whose contemporaries include Alan Kwela, Sandile Shange of Chesterville, has, like wine, matured with time.
NB: This article is written out of a chance interview conducted by Radio 2000 presenter Koketso Sachane – a confessed number one fan of Madala Kunene, who, fondly, too, regards as his father for his exploits on stage and in life.
To Ukhozi FM, take a leaf out Kokee’s book, no harm.
