26th August 2025
[Afropop] Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queen, pioneers and now torch-bearers for the 1960s mbaqanga sound of Soweto, were one of the first African bands to rock my world. When Sean Barlow and I first went to Johannesburg in 1987, the group was preparing for a European tour, and beginning a revived international career in the wake of Paul Simon's Graceland. They weren't on Simon's album, but they represented one of its key influences--mbaqanga--as well as any band alive, and with renewed focus on South African
