South Africa Music Festival: Featuring renowned Mafikizolo; CAFCA Band & Moretheto featuring Afro-zee dance troupe

Their name may mean 'new kids on the block, who just arrived yesterday' in Zulu, but Mafikizolo are no newcomers. This vibrant, stylish group that created a delicious dance brew by mixing old and new South African sounds, have released seven hit filled Afro Pop albums, sold over a million copies, and picked up countless awards, which makes them one of the biggest groups in South Africa.

Mafikizolo are part of South Africa’s kwaito explosion. Kwaito is an urban, electronic, township flavored sound that was created by young DJs and producers in the joyful early 90’s when Apartheid had crumbled. It’s a hot danceable brew cooked from a fusion of South African township disco, jazz, mbaqanga and imported house, dancehall, reggae, hip hop and R&B. It started out underground but today; it’s a big selling, star studded, and powerful force on the South African music scene.

Afro pop is a version of kwaito that fuses traditional South African music, township jazz, gospel and mbaqanga with the beats and bounce of today's dance floor sounds. Mafikizolo’s major breakthrough came when they spiced their Afro Pop sounds with kwela and Marabi music of the 50's and 60's, made famous by the likes of Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba.