Maskandi

Maskandi is a Zulu guitar music in which a finger-picked acoustic or electric guitar carries a fast, repeating cyclic figure under a sung or half-spoken narrative. The standard line-up adds concertina, violin and a small kit with hand-clap and drum-machine accents in modern productions. Songs open with a guitar prelude called intela, then drop into the verse, and almost always include a section of izibongo — praise poetry shouted at high speed over the groove. Vocals are masculine and declamatory, with a hard, projected timbre.

Maskandi grew up in KwaZulu-Natal in the early twentieth century among Zulu men who travelled to Johannesburg's gold mines on long migrant-labour contracts. The guitar — cheap, portable, individual — became the instrument for narrating the homesickness, jealousy and rural news that mattered in the hostels. The word itself is thought to come from the Afrikaans musikant. Phuzekhemisi rose through cassette distribution in the 1990s to become the genre's biggest KwaZulu-Natal star, and Mfaz' Omnyama and Ihhashi Elimhlophe carried the form into the 2000s.

The opening intela works like a guitar fanfare — a fast, articulated solo that often has nothing to do with the rest of the song's chord cycle. Once the groove starts, listen for the izibongo passages, where the singer abandons melody entirely and recites family lineage and personal boasts at speed. The guitar uses thumb-and-finger picking rather than strumming, so the bass line and melody come from the same instrument.

Phuzekhemisi's Imbizo (1992) is the entry point. From there, Mfaz' Omnyama's Ngafa (2001) and any compilation of Phuzekhemisi's KwaZulu-Natal cassette work cover the range.

Maskandi is one of the very few Zulu-language genres in which artists are routinely buried with full traditional honours in their home district, regardless of national fame — the music's identity as KwaZulu-Natal-first has stayed intact.