The legend of music icon Madala Kunene is set to be unveiled via bio-documentary titled Mkhumbane in Me.
Mkhumbane is the name of a community in Cato Manor, west of Durban, where Kunene was born and learnt to play the guitar from the tender age of seven. When he was a bit older he started busking with friends around the beaches in Durban.
This fact and many interesting events in the life of the man now revered as "King of the Zulu Guitar" are revealed in the documentary made by award-winning filmmaker and sound engineer Malcom Nhleko.
It also features Kunene's family, friends, manager and other artists. The documentary also relates the story of forced removals of black communities in Mkhumbane in 1959. People were resettled in Durban townships like KwaMashu and Umlazi.
The 70-year-old folk music star was inspired by his own father to follow music. By the age of eight he had founded a band with his friends. After dropping out of school as early as grade 1, Kunene focused on playing the guitar and selling eggs at the market.
“I was inspired by watching my dad playing guitar from when I was four. I wanted to be like him one day. When he left when I was seven, I made myself a tin guitar and started playing. When it comes to school I never liked it. I dropped out because I was not interested in it. Even my grandmother accepted I don’t want to go to school,” Kunene shares.
Thabo Thungo, a childhood friend, confirmed that they were aged just seven when they began playing together.
"We used to go play together at the beach and we used to get money. We played the tin guitar until Madala bought a real one when we were older."
Another friend, Fundangaye Mntambo, explains that when he started his music he played three strings guitar and then graduated to six strings with the late Sipho Gumede.
According to Kunene, his grandmother tried to resist the 1959 forced removals until police threatened to charge her.
“People can’t imagine what it’s like when you see bulldozers demolish your home in the middle of the night. The worst thing was that when they moved us, they came at night and packed my family into the back of a truck and then went to another area to pick up another family there and so on. So, you were not just separated from your home, you were stripped of your friends and neighbours in the process. It was a very calculated act,” Kunene adds.
The award means a lot to me because I thought that people have forgotten about me. It is an absolute honour to be recognised while still alive
Kunene says in the 1970s he fell in love with music of artists like Elvis Presley, Bad Company and The Beatles. In jazz, he played cover versions of Kenny Burrell and Jimmy Ponder.
“I played different cover versions until 1981 where I felt I needed to look for inspiration in Africa. I started playing a lot of music by Cameroonian international Manu Dibango until I found my own style tuning my guitar differently.”
Kunene has since collaborated with Switzerland star Andreas Vollenweider and Airto Moreira from Brazil. For years music critics and experts have struggled to define Madala’s sound, calling it world music or Zulu classical music but he simply calls it Madala style.
“The award means a lot to me because I thought that people have forgotten about me. It is an absolute honour to be recognised while still alive. I thank Mavuso for remembering me.
“I can’t believe that he is an employee himself at Ukhozi FM but he is able to do such a thing. What makes me even happier is that he has done this even to other people. This means that people have been watching what I am doing... taking this music to Switzerland and Brazil and other countries.”
Madala Kunene's music career has been marked by decades of collaborations with hugely talented and innovative local and international musicians. Apart from Moreira and Vollenweider mentioned above, Kunene has worked with Mabi Thobejane, Busi Mhlongo, Themba Mokoena, Mathias Abacherli, Gabriel Le Mar and drummer Paki Peloeole Kgosietsile.
He has released album such as Kon’ko Man, Bafo, Madamax, 1959, Uxolo and Durban Poison at Last that he released with Themba Mokoena.
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