The two-hour Heritage Month programme, titled MMM … Isisusa! Jou Lekker Ding!, spans genres, languages and cultures.
The concert will feature choral artistry, barbershop vocals and spoken word. Ben “Boeta B” Baadjies, described as a “singing comedian who feels like everyone’s favourite uncle”, will MC the afternoon.
The Nelson Mandela University Choir in collaboration with The Creed, Curro Westbrook, Moment’s Notice, and Westering High School’s Optima Voices will lead Isisusa. Their performances blend multilingual expression, and regional heritages of Ghoema influences and close-harmony vocals.
“The Nelson Mandela University Choir is this year’s ‘Isisusa’ equalising bridge builder,” said Arts, Culture and Heritage Deputy Director Giselle Baillie.
“Its work draws in relationships with schools and artists, as it showcases the ‘Mqhayi Meets Mandela’ project.”
‘Mqhayi Meets Mandela’ (MMM) is a University initiative that explores how Xhosa poet S.E.K. Mqhayi inspired Nelson Mandela’s sense of purpose through language and performance. It aims to use similar cultural expressions today as transformative tools, breaking down exclusionary practices and building social cohesion through indigenous language and performance traditions.
Ben “Boeta B” Baadjies
MMM … Isisusa! Jou Lekker Ding! builds on the 2024 concert, which was themed Improvisation and Syncopations: Re-Imaginations.
That programme, through the artistic interpretation of Marlon Louis and performance of the Victoria Park High School Jazz Band and University music students and graduates, focused on re-imagining the democratic sounds of the University and the city, which has a rich jazz history.
This featured collaboration with the late Feya Faku, an internationally acclaimed trumpeter and flugelhorn player, composer and teacher.
Nelson Mandela University Choir director Robert Gillmer and Professor Alethea De Villiers are the artistic directors for this year’s concert.
“We acknowledge with sadness the recent passing of Feya Faku,” said Gillmer. “His contribution to Isisusa and South African jazz will be honoured in the programme. Ghoema’s Cape Malay rhythms,
integral to Cape Jazz, will be woven into performances to create a vibrant, authentic soundscape celebrating South Africa’s rich musical heritage.”
In addition to the Faku tribute, the programme will contain hits from well-known South African artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Vusi Mahlasela, Emo Adams and gospel arrangements, as well as items containing the words of SEK Mqhayi.
The University’s jazz-arts programme Isisusa began in 2007 and has since grown into a platform for new forms of musical innovation and development. As well as providing inclusive entertainment, it strives to strengthen university-school-community partnerships and promote educational and cultural dialogue through the arts.
MMM … Isisusa! Jou Lekker Ding! runs from 2pm to 4pm on Sunday, 28 September, at the Feather Market Centre in Central. Tickets are R30 and are on sale online at Webtickets.