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Entertainment - Date: 07 April 2016
Music
His 16th album is a cause for a huge celebration for Percy Mfana’s fans across the country. Those who understand his music better believe that this artist has gone from strength to strength.
A resident of Xikundu village in the Malamulele area, the 48-year-old musician believes that Tsonga traditional music reached maturity many decades ago with the release of quality songs and albums by those who came before. “We have inherited the musical baton from our elders who came before us and shaped Tsonga traditional music,” he said.
Percy Mfana started his musical journey as a Shangaan disco singer and he was only advised to switch to Tsonga Traditional music by the late musical maestro Matswa Bemuda. “The person who made me to switch to Tsonga traditional music was Bemuda as he said there was a vacuum for an artist in the traditional genre with a unique voice like mine,” he said. “I responded to his advice and the rest is now history.”
Mpfana said that his role model had always been Dr Thomas Chauke. “I grew up following his music and the day Patson spotted me in a sheebeen singing, I was singing Chauke’s songs and he invited me to follow him to the studio the following day.”
His latest album is titled Va na tshiri (rhwayi xirivani). Mfana explained that the title of the album tackles the issue of men who leave children in different parts of the country because of migration. “The song goes further to show that is why you find Shangaans all over the provinces. Men left their offspring as they were migrating to look for work, but those children are not counted as Tsongas. They can’t speak the language and they don’t even know that they are Tsongas,” he said.
He commented that the modern music was full of technological development. “Technology keeps on changing and we need to move with the times,” he said. “It is also full of entertainment, which is good. Some artists mix it with education for the young generation, which is good. The old music has always been rich in language and building families and giving lessons to all. I think we partly lack such things.”
He emphasised that the command of the Xitsonga language should be a key aspect in lyrics. “But that should not take away the fact that, as an artist, you must be creative as we are in the creative arts,” he said. He promised all his fans that he would remain respectful towards them and to other artists because, apart from being a respectful person, he was brought up in a manner that discouraged disrespect.
Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.
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