mbaqanga

/ əmbɑːˈkæŋɡə /

noun

1. a style of Black popular music of urban South Africa

Word History and Origins

Origin of mbaqanga¹

C20: perhaps from Zulu umbaqanga mixture

Example Sentences

Still Crazy After All These Years, from 1975, won the Grammy award for album of the year; a feat he repeated with 1986's Graceland, recorded largely in Johannesburg after he became fascinated with the South African street music, mbaqanga.

From BBC

The mbaqanga song “Umculo” — “music” in Zulu — is pure upbeat three-chord euphoria; the rhythm guitars are having a party of their own.

From New York Times

One sells DVDs of popular mbaqanga music artists; a herbalist offers a mixture that will “help you find love”.

From The Guardian

Clegg, a Grammy nominee and Billboard music award winner known for his fluent Zulu which he mixed into his traditional folk music known as mbaqanga, was also a vocal critic of the apartheid government that ruled South Africa until 1994.

From Reuters

Inspired by a bootleg cassette of Mbaqanga music, Simon incorporated his own melodic style and storytelling skill into the sounds he had fallen in love with, recruiting Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Gaza Sisters to realise his ambitious ideas.

From The Guardian