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South Africa is seen as the world capital of dance music. Be it amapiano, gqom and now Afrohouse and Afrotech.
However, despite Mzansi’s lead in the genre, South Africans don’t fully take ownership of the sound.
“We have to claim the space, if we don’t claim the space someone else will,” producer and performer Zakes Bantwini tells The Citizen.
“It nearly happened with amapiano, you remember when there was a fight with Nigerians. It happened because South Africans were not travelling and people [from outside] were taking the music to the world.”
Bantwini practices what he preaches through playing South African music when he deejays in different parts of the world and South Africa.
He is doing this at home in November, by celebrating the evolution of Afrohouse and Afrotech through his Mayonie Festival, at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.
Owning the sound
He cited how some amapiano artists don’t do interviews with the media, saying this also hinders South Africans’ ownership of the genre because someone else will tell stories about it.
“How then are we going to make sure that we document the story of amapiano if you as the pioneers of amapiano don’t document it, because there’s gonna be someone whose gonna document this on your behalf.”
“Everything that needs to happen, it needs to be done by us. In four years, as a South African you saw Black Coffee, Zakes and Tyla receiving Grammys within four years. That needs to tell you that this is ours.”
Afrohouse and Afrotech are subgenres of house music that originated in South Africa. Afrotech is a subgenre of Afrohouse that incorporates techno influences, while Afrohouse combines traditional African rhythms and vocals with house music for a more traditional sound.
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Bantwini says Afrohouse and Afrotech are appreciated by the global community more than amapiano, as Africans mostly appreciate the latter in the diaspora.
“I think the difference between Afrotech and amapiano, is that amapiano is really enjoyed more by people in the diaspora. Hence every time you travel the world, maybe 70% of your audience will be Africans.”
“The difference with Afrotech and Afrohouse when you’re there [overseas] you find the locals and just a bit of people coming from Africa,” he shares.
He makes an example of how currently, Black Coffee and DJ Shimza, leaders in Afrotech and Afrohouse, are dominating in Ibiza with residencies of about four months in the European warm season.
“Every week, there is a South African headlining in playing Afrotech and Afrohouse in Spain for Spanish people and other people from Europe. That’s where the difference is.”
Issued on The Citizen (South Africa) by Bonginkosi Tiwane | https://www.citizen.co.za/entertainment/zakes-bantwini-we-have-to-claim-the-space-if-we-dont-someone-else-will/
