Original Pantsula is back :: Mmegi Online

Twenty-seven years ago kwaito music took away mapantsula on a vibey ride and later died in Durban leaving mapanstula stranded in a confusing identity crisis. Some of the lost mapantsula adopted the cheap imitation of the original pantsula and dubbed themselves ‘manyora’ while other veered off to the ultra disgraceful ‘iskhothanes’ and burnt clothes and washed their hands with premium single malt whiskeys in an endevour to demonstrate their kind of ‘class’. Even without any mainstream music icons, the original pantsulas have found their feet and are gathering together to bring back pantsula cred(ibility) to the streets, writes THALEFANG CHARLES

How Kwaito killed Pantsula

This is the story of music as much as it is the story of identity and street lifestyle. The generation that came into age during the fall of apartheid in South Africa brought in new ways of self-expression in the form of kwaito music. The 1990s were glorious years when the black youth learnt to be free and made new sound, but during that euphoria of the newly-found freedom, an old township subculture of mapantsula caught the buzz that led to its death.

Already have an active account? Log in here.

Or Sign up and get unlimited access to premium articles.