ZAZI - Eastern Cape Musicians Must Start Doing It For Themselves!

We are back with the 2^nd year journalism students of the Walter Sisulu University. Today we are publishing an article written Philasande Tukute. 

The article taps into the music business in South Africa and profiles Mwezi Zazi, a sound engineer, multi-instrumentalist and producer born in Duncan Village (to find out how Duncan Village is related to Mdantsane click the link), who believes that Eastern Cape musicians should start doing it for themselves instead of depending on production companies. 

Many of the young and talented young musicians, who send us their tracks and who are in desperate search of a producer or production company might find this interesting and inspiring. And if some of you need advice: why not contact ZAZI, a man who has survived in the music industry for 30 years! 

Mwezi Zazi is a Duncan Village based sound engineer, multi-instrumentalist and producer who has worked with the best in the industry. He is a self-taught musician who plays both bass and acoustic guitar, drums, piano and keyboards.

Zazi said: “I’ve worked with the likes of McCoy Mrubata, Jimmy Dludlu, Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse, Moses Ngwenya from the Soul Brothers, Tsepo Tshola, Thembi Mtshali of Sgudi Snaysi fame among many others.”

The well-travelled Zazi is now an in-house chief sound engineer and producer at the Duncan Village Studio situated in Duncan Village. It started operating at the end of 2010. He joined the studios at the beginning of 2012.

“This is where I produced Butho Vuthelas latest album titled Ah! Mvelingqangi in which I produced 13 tracks out of the 15,” he said.
Before joining DV Studios, Zazi worked in many places across the country as a singer and later as a producer and sound engineer. “I worked at Saules casino in Mdantsane during my high school days in the late 80’s, moved to PE where I worked with a band called the drifters,” he said.

Letting Go Of  Producers.....

Zazi then moved to Johannesburg where he worked with Chicco Twala as a keyboarder in the late 90’s. “I produced Tsepo Tsolas album titled Lesedi during my time in Joburg,” said Zazi.

Having been in the industry for more than 30 years Zazi knows what it takes. “Being dedicated and having lots and lots of patience are what it takes to make it in this dog-eats-dog industry,” he said.

The Ziphunzane-born multi-instrumentalist attributes his longevity to dedication and persistence as he believes that there is no one who is going to do it for him and that there is only one way for him to go and that is up.

Zazi describes his sound as “smooth, soulful and jazzy” while it also caters for the hip-hop,house and kwaito fanatics. He was also part of a band with McCoy Mrubata, Jimmy Dludlu, Lucas Khumalo, Nhlanhla Magagula and Chippa Mashuku.
“The band was called McCoy’s Brotherhood under the leadership of Mrubata and we produced an African jazz album called Firebird,” he said.

Zazi is a graduate of Siegen Institute of Audio Technology in Germany where he studied on a scholarship from the Department of Arts and Culture in 1998.

“I was always interested in audio technology so I took the opportunity with both hands,” he said.
“I spent four years in Germany doing my degree. Now I am in charge of all the production and engineering in the Duncan Village Studios.”
Looking at the current state of the Eastern Cape music industry, Zazi believes that there is room for improvement.

“Our music is sounding good and there are more 100% locally produced products that are doing well in the market but there is a lot to be done in terms of marketing and distribution,” said Zazi. 

“I think it’s high time that artists started to do things for themselves instead of depending on production companies to sign them. Learning the business side of things is always a plus,” he concluded. – Article by Philisande Tukute, Walter Sisulu University, Image Chocolat Negro

The Background Of The Relationship Between Mdantsane And Duncan Village

Our magazine writes primarily about the township Mdantsane. 

We are not publishing breaking news, meaning that if a police car is set alight and burns out in Mdantsane, you will NOT find a story about this incident the next day in our magazine. 

It is possible that at a later stage we might write about it, but if we do, we will write about a person who was involved in the incident. We will write about the how and why and what impact did the incident have on the person's life.

We write about the people who live and have lived in the township. Dead or alive. We write about their incredible and sometimes so astonishing lives and homes. We are stories tellers of the old school, who concentrate on the now, by reaching back into the past, in an endeavour to understand the context of what we are seeing with our eyes and our hearts. 

We are trying to find the essence of the place, that you call Mdantsane. 

We belong may be to a dying breed, a species that has come close to extinction, because we love stories about the small things, like the soup that your mother always cooked for you and its recipe that you learned from her and that you have never shared with anyone.

In our continuous attempt to understand more about the background and the history of Mdantsane, we are looking today at the "old relationship between Mdantsane and Duncan Village".

 

Duncan Village, the "old and first location of East London" in the late 1940's - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

Duncan Village was established in 1941 and was named after the then Governor of East London Patrick Duncan - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

It is indeed a very old relationship if 75 years count for something. Duncan village is still today referred to as the "old location of East London" and it is the place from where the first residents were resettled forcefully to live in Mdantsane in NU 1.

Duncan Village was there before Mdantsane. 

Yeah, that is true. Duncan Village was established in 1941. And if this is so, you might ask why in gods name was the place called Duncan Village. Well, because the governors, politicians and statesmen of this turbulent time had a relatively good self confidence and loved to donate their name to the places they "created" under their rule and governance.

Overcrowding in Duncan Village  in the 1940's and a lack of the most basic facilities- image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

In 1941, the then acting Governor General Sir Patrick Duncan oversaw the opening of what was called a "leasehold tenure area" in the East Bank Location to which he gave his name. After a while, the whole East Bank Location became known as Duncan Village 

The streets of  Duncan Village in the late 1940's - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

Hard to maintain reasonable standards of hygiene - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

 

Only 16 years later, in 1957 the first preliminary plans for Mdantsane were made by the East London municipality. The reason for this was, that the old location of Duncan Village was becoming too crowded. The administration of East London had come under pressure and according to municipal records, they were looking for "a magnet to draw away blacks from East London not for work but for dwelling places" [municipal records, Gordon,1980:6]. 

The administration of East :London was looking for "a magnet" to draw people away from Duncan Village to combat overcrowding - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

We explained in our article "Where does the name Mdantsane come from?" that the word Mdantsane was derived from Umdanzani. In 1958 land from the white farm called Umdanzani, located near the railway line, was released for the purpose of creating a "dormatory township". 

At the end of 1962 a request was made for the first 300 dwellings of Unit 1 to be built close to the site of a new textile factory.and by the end of 1963 the first residents moved in [Gordon, 1980:10].

The whole East Bank area became to be known as Duncan Village - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

The first inhabitants of Mdantsane came from Duncan Village and were relocated to NU 1 were 300 houses had been built. Mdantsane was born.  Image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

There is a strong relationship between the two townships Mdantsane and Duncan Village today. There is a bond, and there is competition between them. There are family connections that have lived through the years and it is no wonder because Duncan Village is the seed from which Mdantsane was created from. 

You will often hear expressions like: ah my mother lives in Duncan Village, my grandparents are still there, I have a cousin in Duncan Village, I visit my aunt every Saturday in Duncan Village.

Growing up in Duncan Village - an unknown child - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

Mdantsane came to house the labor needs of East London and its border industries. East London was one of the first to become a border industry area, based on the fact that it was situated in close proximity to both the Transkei and Ciskei.
The concept of a border industry came out of the report of the Tomlinson Commission in 1955 and such an industry was described as "one which is situated within a white area, but close to a homeland -preferably within walking or cycling distance" [Daniel & Waxmonsky, 1980:49]

The location Duncan Village, was called a squatter camp - image Amathole Museum King Williams Town

Today looking at both townships, Duncan Village is considered the poorer and more destitute one. Urban development and urban renewal programs have somehow overlooked the old location Duncan Village. But the strong ties between the two have been uncut.

All images have been sourced from the Amathole Museum in King Williams Town in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. We thank the Museum for allowing us to show these images here.