“I do not want to white anymore; I do not want to rainbow nation without bread,” says Makhafula Vilakazi in one of his new songs
Makhafula Vilakazi’s writes for, about and to black people, in the album, Concerning Blacks, which will take you through a range of emotions as you listen.
Makhafula Vilakazi, born Gift Matodzi Ramashia, is many things. A delinquent, a graduate of the Wits law school who runs his own law firm and a poet. His most recent album Concerning Blacks is an eight-part poetry album that addresses the conditions that confront black people daily. It debuted on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.
Vilakazi opens the album with the title track Concerning Black. In the song, he introduces listeners to a range of black people and their unique lived experiences, from those who are killed in America to those who have sought whiteness and those who fought it.
In one of the poems on the album, Ulele, Vilakazi introduces us to a passive black man who is hypnotised by his debt, religion, poverty, and Mandela’s promise. The man has lost sense of who he is and is oblivious to the world around him. The state of being black is compared to being in a trance like state.
SomDanger Instagram introduces us to Vilakazi’s childhood love interest. A beautiful yellow bone who is more interested in a financially stable guy rather than Vilakazi, a simple man from the township. His only dream was to have a small back room with a sound system, a kettle, and the girl of his dreams. The love interest chooses a man from Stellenbosch who can take her on trips to Paris and to beaches in Zanzibar leaving Vilakazi alone to daydream.
Gift Skoloto tells us about TaGift, a young man who has made it out of the township and lives the middle-class dream but financed on debt. He spends money on his friends and lover but does the bare minimum for his poor mother in the township. His debts get out of hand, and he eventually falls into a deep depression and plays hide and seek with his creditors.
In Words, he tells us the story of a South Africa that has failed black people. A country where people have forgiven but are still living in horrid conditions. He makes the point that words will not help black people. “Words do not protect, I hate you words, words are just words without land,” he says.
Vilakazi’s Concerning Blacks addresses important issues such as the indebtedness, religious indoctrination and the landlessness of black people in Post-Apartheid South Africa and is an essential album for anyone who wants to understand the current state of South Africa.
Vuvu Rating 10/10
FEATURED IMAGE: Makhafula Vilakazi. Photo: Andy Mkosi
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