Vusi Mahlasela

South African folk singer and activist

Vusi Mahlasela was born in Lady Selbourne, Pretoria in 1965 and grew up in Mamelodi, a township famed as a cradle of culture which has produced many of Black South Africa’’s greatest musicians and writers. Vusi can’t remember a time when he wasn’t singing as a child... "I’m sure I learned to sing before I could talk" he says. Listening-in his grandmother’s shebeen-to men singing ‘ingomabusuku or ‘songs of the night? The young Vusi began to teach himself to play his home-made guitar, a remarkable instrument made of tin cans and fishing line. Formal guitar lessons began when he entered high school, where he set about putting together a vocal group of his own. His teachers marvelled at his amazing vocal range which enabled him to continue singing soprano parts in school productions well into his teens. He found himself drawn to themes with social and political significance and he became much in demand at political rallies and cultural events. This drew him into close contact with poetry groups, which led to him joining the Ancestors of Africa. This group of poets, musicians and actors, formed in 1981, stirred up some turbulence among the current police force, who harassed its members. It was after joining the Congress of South African Writers in 1988, that Vusi developed a new level of confidence as a poet and a writer and into contact with other artists and poets who were to influence him greatly. He struck up a creative friendship with South African poet Lesego Rampolokeng at the same time he fell under the jazz and traditional music spell of artists like Miriam Makeba and Philip Tabane. He was exposed to the work of Victor Jara, whom Vusi acknowledges as having had perhaps the strongest influence on his music and lyrics.