It’s a chilly Friday in Cape Town and we are looking forward to keeping warm near the fire-place this weekend. Of course there is very exciting rugby happening tomorrow with the Super 14 semi-finals, but first we are off to enjoy the launch of Babu’s CD Up Roots tonight at the Sea Point SABC Auditorium, starting at 20h00!

In Sandton there is another show on the go (tonight and tomorrow) that I think is drawing lots of attention; Ancestral Grooves is a production that is once again showcasing Southern Africa’s traditional music fusing with Western instruments, and features the Mzantsi Traditional Orchestra (SA’s only traditional orchestra). It first caught my eye because our long time friend Pops Mohamed has been involved in the show, and also performs in a number of the songs.

This kind of fusion music that both Babu and Ancestral Grooves is producing, is so important because it once again shows how when combining different cultural, and therefore musical, styles you get a result that is completely unique and at the same time universal. It shows that even when embracing your own identity, that by working together with other individuals of different cultures and backgrounds you create something new and exciting, which is exactly what I think the whole dream of the Nelson Mandela’s Rainbow Nation was. A fusion and mixture of people coming together to create something new, fresh and exciting!

Babu made such a strong impression on me at this years Cape Town International Jazz Festival where I saw them for the first time. Their music, which appeals to music lovers of all ages and backgrounds, can be described as a fusion of Indian Classical sounds mixed with South African Jazz – but then that would be trying to create a box into which they could be categorized. But that wouldn’t be fair, or a good description. Its South African. It’s worldly. But it’s ours.

The Ancestral Grooves production is still running tonight and tomorrow night at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Sandton, with a lunch-time show tomorrow. Tickets are R100 and are available from Computicket on 083 915 8000 or 011 340 8000.

AbaForeigners AbaRefugees Sawubona iSouth Africa!
Foreigners and Refugees are Welcome in South Africa!

But before that, regardless of the chill, I am taking Lenny and my boys to the protest vigil outside Parliament, Plein Street corner of Roeland Street from 5pm to 6pm to voice my disgust at the xenophobia that is flashing up all over the country. There are many blogs that have voiced their disgust, anger and sadness – and I feel that we all need to support the people that live in the communities around us by petitioning government to protect the people in our country. Every day I look to a picture of Nelson Mandela I have hanging in my office,  for inspiration, and the pledge that is printed on it is now, once again, very, very apt:

“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another… The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement. Let freedom reign.”

I think we have forgotten where we have come from.