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This chapter discusses the making of Bhekizizwe Joseph Shabalala — founder and lead singer of Ladysmith Black Mambazo — in two works: a biography authored by two black South African journalists and “Journey of Dreams”, a documentary shot in 1988 by David Lister. Both blend discourses of authenticity and international stardom and thus serve as important vehicles of self-fashioning in the interstices of the global music industry.

This chapter discusses the cultural and historical background of the music of Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Essentially originating from the harsh world of labor migration, isicathamiya is anything but traditional. It has enabled migrant workers to articulate complex and multiply determined identities, while at the same time articulating nostalgia for rootedness and a social order predicated on stable and hierarchical gender relations.

This chapter discusses the collaboration between Michael Jackson and Ladysmith Black Mambazo on the music video “Moonwalker”. In comparing Jackson's dance style with that of the South Africans, certain parallels in black body styles become apparent and how these intersect with the aesthetics of MTV, black dance, and popular music in articulating racial difference.

This chapter focuses on the song “Mbube” by Solomon Linda, a South African classic and milestone in the evolution of isicathamiya. “Mbube” has become the subject of many cover versions, most notably “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by the Tokens. Although most of these cover versions are exoticizing Africa, there is also a version performed jointly by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Afro-British female a cappella group, Mint Juleps, which articulates black diasporic consciousness.

The story of the African Choir, Zulu Choir, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo is a story about the disjunctures and ambiguities of racial, national, and personal identities. As such, this story highlights the specific black forms of modernity emerging from the diasporic connections between Africa and the West.

In 1992, two years before South Africa's first democratic elections, Ladysmith Black Mambazo teamed up with playwright Tug Yourgrau in the production of “The Song of Jacob Zulu”. The play, premiered at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, portrays the career of an ANC freedom fighter facing the death penalty and advocates the process of reconciliation initiated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This chapter focuses on the collaboration between the South African choral isicathamiya group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and US pop star Paul Simon on the Grammy Award winning album “Graceland” in 1986. Far from showcasing the vitality of South African musical tradition alone, a track such as “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” seeks to soften the more strident tonalities of the anti-apartheid struggle by foregrounding collaboration and stylistic closure.