Music with Madala Kunene
In today's music segment we feature the sounds of legendary South African folk and blues guitarist, Madala Kunene.
Referred to as the 'Legendary King Of The Zulu Guitar', or the 'Maskandi King', Kunene was born in 1951 in Mkhumbane, near Durban. At the age of eight, in the year, in 1959, Kunene and his extended family were trucked off by the Apartheid government to go live in the then relatively new township of KwaMashu. It's also during this time that Kunene started busking on Durban’s beach-front, making his first guitar out of a cooking oil tin and fish gut for the strings, soon becoming a popular performer in the townships.
His music is therefore strongly influenced by his upbringing and the history of apartheid system and the dark memories of being a victim of forced removals. He is in Cape Town this week for a one-off show this coming Thursday.
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