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Thandiswa Mazwai Quotes
born 1976 South Africa
Thandiswa Nyameka Mazwai (born 31 March 1976) is a South African musician, and is also the lead vocalist and songwriter of Bongo Maffin. She is also known as King Tha.
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16 quotes
I always knew that there were people who sang better than me, I never thought I would make it to this level.
All I noticed was that something would happen to people when I sang, I found that people noticed me more when I sang.
Learn when to say no to the money, because it comes with so many complications and people who feel entitled to steering your career
A love for the people, a love for country, and a love for justice. They form the basis for what the production is about using audio visual elements to stimulate imagination and explore history while moulding a new world.
I have a lot of band configurations. I have a jazz band. I have the band I have been playing with for 20 years
Soul music is memories, it’s everyday life, it’s easy to consume. I think it’s that the soul, the spirit, resides in Africa so soul music here could also mean the beating of a drum because that’s how we invoke our soul.
Money draws people in and takes away agency
The processes are different for every album. Nothing is ever deliberate. Making art for me is one step in front of the next. You don’t begin with a full art work, you begin with one stroke and then you go. And you ask what else can I do until it’s a full picture.
Struggle didn’t need to be a bad thing, so long as we knew what we were pushing towards
I was interested in something different and followed radical pathways to making art
Having grown up so un-free, there was a euphoria hearing Nelson Mandela was being freed and that we could get an ID and be a true South African with the rights of any other citizen
In spite of having a Black-led government, we quickly realized we still needed to struggle, protest, and fight
We were kind of swept away by this idea of freedom
We were trying to wrap our minds around neocolonialism and the way power corrupts
I saw army tanks while walking to school ensuring us natives were ‘well behaved.’ It was impossible to miss those things
Music gave me a natural medium to express myself and all I was seeing
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