/ 16 June 2010

The songlines of Busi Mhlongo

Busisiwe Mhlongo started singing with groups led by her older brother at an early age. Their love of music later encouraged them to enter a Gallo Records talent competition in Jo’burg, which they won.

The girl from Inanda in KwaZulu-Natal had no idea the competition would mark the beginning of her successful international career that would guarantee her a ticket to perform anywhere in the world.

“OK, the song we did was My Boy Lollipop. I was a kid, really, and yes I was really rocking that My Boy Lollipop. It had been a hit for Milly in England — Island Record’s first hit — and I guess because of apartheid and the way things were working, they sort of shut Milly out and My Boy Lollipop was moving. All this for me, it was for joy, not really knowing that I would be ripped off in the business,” said Mhlongo in an interview.

Mhlongo was one of South Africa’s most celebrated musicians, composers, dancers and theatrical performers, recording two solo albums, Babemu, Urban Zulu and Freedom, drawing on various styles like mbanqanga, maskanda, marabi, funk and jazz.

Years later Mhlongo met her husband, Early Mabuse when he appeared as a guest artist in a show Busi was appearing in.

While the pair didn’t immediately hit it off, they later married and had a daughter Mpumi. Early was a drummer playing with Abdullah Ibrahim, (then Dollar Brand), and was then more widely known for his role in an advertisement for condensed milk.

Music never stopped preoccupying Mhlongo.

When an opportunity presented itself — a tour with a Portuguese cabaret circuit via Mozambique and Angola — Mhlongo accepted and took her daughter, leaving her husband behind.

While on the tour, Mhlongo received a call about Mabuse’s sudden death, leaving her devastated.

She spent the next five years playing in casinos in Portugal, singing pop numbers and songs reminding her of home.

In 1972, she was in London recording with Dudu Pukwana, Julian Bahula and Geroge Lee, among others.

After London, Mhlongo travelled to the United States for treatment for breast cancer.

She recovered and joined the cast of a stage comedy called Reefer Gladness in Toronto.

After five years in Canada, Mhlongo returned to Africa on a tour of Zimbabwe, Zambia and Lesotho, before heading back to South Africa.

The apartheid security police didn’t welcome her return and soon Mhlongo accepted an invitation to perform in a musical called Black Ground.

Next, she headed to Holland after receiving an invitation from a Dutch family in Madeira.

Mhlongo spent the next couple of years accompanying Senegalese musicians, and Gambian group, Ifang Bondi.

In the mid-eighties, Mhlongo returned again to South Africa and formed the original Twasa band with the late “Doc” Mthalane.

She played with Twasa and Winston Mankunku Ngozi to packed houses at The Blue Note in Durban before moving back to Holland in 1988.

She then returned South Africa once again to reform Twasa.

After touring Holland and Belgium in 1993, she recorded her debut album with Twasa, before returning to Durban in 1994.

In 1995, Mhlongo appeared on the main stage of the Grahamstown Arts Festival with Sipho Gumede and took part in the Outernational Meltdown concert at the Limpopo Club of the Africa Centre in London.

In 1996 she performed with Hugh Masekela at a concert in London to mark the end of the Africa ’95 festival and was subsequently invited to tour France and Germany.