When apartheid ended, young South Africans in the townships wanted music that sounded like them. They slowed down house music, shouted and chanted in township slang over it, and called it kwaito.
Kwaito emerged in Soweto and other Johannesburg townships in the early 1990s. It was built on house music beats, slowed down, with heavy bass, simple melodies and vocals that were often chanted or spoken rather than sung. The lyrics used isicamtho, a township slang mixing Zulu, Sotho, English and Afrikaans.
The name
The name is often linked to amakwaitosi, a word for gangsters, drawn from the Afrikaans word kwaai, meaning angry, or, in slang, cool. Kwaito had swagger, style and attitude.
The stars
Arthur Mafokate’s 1995 song “Kaffir” was an early hit, reclaiming a racial slur used against black South Africans and challenging those who used it. Boom Shaka, featuring Lebo Mathosa and Thembi Seete, brought glamour and energy. Mandoza’s “Nkalakatha”, released in 2000, became a crossover hit that played across racial lines. Brenda Fassie also moved into kwaito sounds.
TKZee, Trompies, Mdu Masilela and many others built kwaito into the dominant youth sound of the late 1990s.
On screen
The 2005 film Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, used kwaito on its soundtrack, including songs by Zola, a kwaito star who also appeared in the film. It introduced kwaito to international audiences.
Freedom music
Kwaito arrived when young black South Africans were free, for the first time, to express themselves without fear. Its themes were partying, fashion, township life, money and sometimes social problems. Critics said it was shallow; fans said it was a celebration of freedom.
Kwaito came with a look as well as a sound: sneakers, bucket hats, overalls and bold colours. Township clothing labels such as Loxion Kulca grew up alongside it, and kwaito stars wore them on stage and in videos. For the first time, township style was being sold back to the townships by people from the townships.
Decline and legacy
By the late 2000s, kwaito’s popularity faded as house, hip-hop and later gqom and amapiano took over. But kwaito laid the foundation for them. Amapiano borrows from kwaito’s rhythms, slang and township roots.
Mandoza died in 2016, Lebo Mathosa in 2006, and many kwaito pioneers are no longer here. When amapiano producers play a log drum at a Soweto party, the older guests hear an echo of the 1990s.
