Nguni Folk Music

Nguni folk music gathers the traditional musics of the Nguni peoples of southern Africa, principally the Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, and Ndebele, whose repertoires braid praise poetry, dance song, and close-harmony choral singing. Its best-known exports are the Zulu styles: mbube and its softer descendant isicathamiya, carried worldwide by *Ladysmith Black Mambazo*, and maskandi, the fingerpicked guitar music of migrant workers associated with *Phuzekhemisi* and *Shiyani Ngcobo*. Sung largely in Zulu and Xhosa, the music documents genealogy, courtship, labor migration, and faith, moving between village ceremony, hostel competitions, and the recording studio.