03. Bongeziwe Mabandla

Bongeziwe Mabandla is a rarity. A gifted musician and an old soul. I knew this to be true as I witnessed him make a connection with all of us in an auditorium full of people by speaking the language of pure emotion. This was at the WOMEX festival in Tampere, Finland a few months ago. He was spellbinding and I was floored. I first  came across Bongeziwe‘s work about six years ago when he had just released his first album, Umlilo. An album so melancholic that it spoke to me in a deep way. The songs ranged from lamentations about loving, to making a commentary on social  injustices and paying homage to his mother. Through a series of events I ended up writing an interview piece on him and his musical journey. At that time I predicted (for lack of a better word) that Bongeziwe’s music would travel across borders both physically and non-physically  to reach new frontiers. Little did I know that one of the places it would travel  would be to our neck of the woods, Finland, and I would get the blessed and rare opportunity to witness and experience in person ,the potent energy I had then responded to from oceans away. I would finally  get to be at  his live performance and feel the full magnitude of the power of his words, sound, and sheer presence. Nothing could have prepared me for his live performance that night. He was spellbinding! Bongeziwe has come a long way since the days of his debut album Umlilo, he has survived a baptismal of fire so to speak.The first album turned out to be not what he had at all expected, his hopes of making it after the release were dashed and whatever ideas he may have had about showbiz and stardom were swiftly shattered. ‘I was signed to a big record label, and I thought I’m gonna release this record and be a superstar, so I was preparing myself for that. My reality, however, was that my life changed very little after the release of the album and I didn’t understand because I was with this big record label. It just didn’t really pick up but it did enough for me to carry on and to say 'I'm gonna write another album’. As we sit in the hotel room catching up,I find myself wondering out loud about how he managed  to dust himself off and try again and to finally  arrive at this peak moment of his musical career where he is actually living the dream and doing a world tour? I asked him how the disappointment of his first album influenced the next work that he put out. ‘It influenced the next album in a very direct way. In fact, the whole Mangaliso album is about that disappointment and that’s why it’s so spiritual. I got so dark, so sad and so depressed that it came from that place of trying to deal with the disappointment’. It made me think about God and who God is’. I didn’t wanna use my cleverness anymore and devoted myself to a lot of prayer.’ In this conversation with Bongeziwe we go through a myriad of emotions as he talks about the darkest times and the highest peaks like  winning the SAMA awards. He also talks about  how ecstatic he was to receive that acclaimed award. He speaks of how living the dream feels like after having worked so hard at not giving up.This is a story of triumph and inspiration. To catch the rest of the talk you can listen to the conversation here. Find Bongeziwe from the web: IG: https://www.instagram.com/bongeziwemabandla/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/bongeziwe FB: https://www.facebook.com/bongeziwe.mabandla Find I And Am from the web: IG: https://www.instagram.com/iandampodcast/ FB: https://www.facebook.com/iandampodcast/