MUSIC-SWAZILAND: Orphan Choir Makes a Name for Itself

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

James Hall MBABANE, Jul 30 2002 (IPS) - Orphaned or abandoned boys from the Manzini Youth Care Centre have just secured an international reputation after performing last month in Barcelona, Spain before dignitaries at the 14th International AIDS Conference.

“It was the experience of a lifetime,” says Mandla Dlamini, 12, one of the choirboys whose high-pitched voice makes him sound like an angel.

Mandla’s previous life of deprivation might have made the Barcelona trip seem like a “once in a lifetime,” but the success of the group’s performance has promised further overseas bookings.

Before July, none of the boys had ever stepped foot outside the small kingdom of their birth. Today, the orphans are already the best-travelled Swazi boys of their age group, and soon they may be totalling the mileage of seasoned diplomats, which in many ways they will become.

“The boys are our ambassadors of song, and they are living up to the responsibility admirably,” Father Larry McDonnell, the director of the Manzini Youth Care Centre, told IPS.

Here is the story’s moral: talent brings opportunity. The 24 abandoned or orphaned boy choristers who are impressing audiences are the tip of an enormous crisis of orphans in Swaziland.

Because of parents dying of AIDS, the number of parentless children is increasing at such a rate that by decade’s end one-fifth of Swaziland’s one million or so population will comprise of orphaned children under the age of 15. Enormous resources must be expended to see to their needs.

A U.N. report released last week tells of the strain the AIDS crisis is placing on traditional society, as families can no longer afford to follow custom and bring their relatives’ parentless children into their homes.

The Manzini Youth Care Centre choir is not only showcasing the talent of orphans, but is also raising awareness of the orphan situation in the country.

More than presenting beguiling, fresh-scrubbed faces and the tight harmonies of a well-trained chorus that displays a wealth of natural talent, the boys introduced their Barcelona audiences to African musical rhythms and folk tales told through song.

Some of their music is traditional African, while other songs are Christian faith-based. Half the songs are original compositions performed with African and gospel fusion. But it was the group’s pitch-perfect sound and professional performance that impressed listeners.

The first of those listeners were from aid agencies stationed in Swaziland.

“We were performing at a function here in Manzini (Swaziland’s central commercial hub and most populous urban area), for an initiative to bring assistance to an informal settlement called Skom by the river,” says Father McDonnell. “The slum is not far from where the Youth Care Centre is located. Our chorus performed, and the boys impressed the officials there.”

The chorus was asked to perform at the national launch of the alliance of mayors’ initiative against AIDS in October last year. While singing their songs at the event, the boys were videotaped by an impressed official from a U.N. agency.

The tape came to the attention of the organisers of the 14th International AIDS Conference, who were preparing the major assembly for Barcelona, Spain. The conference organisers requested the Swazi boys choir be part of the entertainment events.

The boys’ choirs were taken to Spain by Cederick Matsebula, a councillor and social worker, who is a house parent where the boys live, and a teacher at the boys’ school.

“The trip was financed by the United Nations Development Programme. Air France offered discounted tickets,” he relates. “The Swaziland mayors’ initiative against AIDS got the boys from Manzini to Johannesburg, South Africa for the international flight.”

The boys became a part of the official Swaziland delegation to the conference.

Matsebula, who is also the group’s choirmaster, says, “We rehearsed a programme of songs that were a mix of Christian songs and original compositions in the SiSwati language.”

The songs have life-affirming themes, while others deal with aspects of traditional African life.

The choir’s programme as prepared by Matsebula begins with ‘Shosholoza’, appropriately enough, because the popular traditional song tells the story of men travelling a long distance away from home to seek their fortune, in this case to toil underground in South African mines.

‘My God’, a traditional hymn follows, and then an original composition and the group’s first song in their home SiSwati language, ‘Emaweni’. Other original compositions by Matsebula like ‘Thuli-Thuli’ and ‘Ngito Luthando’ are “stories in song, and they tell about the life and struggles of ordinary people, who seek God’s guidance and redemption in their faith,” he says.

The 12-song programme ends with ‘Umfana’, the SiSwati word for boy, in which the choirs sing of their hope for a brighter future.

That future seems more assured for this group of orphans after their international debut in Spain. In addition to future bookings, some of which may possibly bring them to other overseas venues, the trip was its own reward.

Also accompanying the choir was Mikel Garmendia, a teacher who is a native of Spain’s Basque region. Following the choir’s performance at Barcelona, one of Spain’s most historic and beautiful cities that played host to the Olympic Games in 1992, Garmendia brought the boys on a tour of his homeland.

The boys admit to being excited but a little nervous when they left Swaziland for the first time. “I want to show the people that Swazis are proud of their songs,” says one boy named Sipho.