Batsumi

Batsumi was a South African Jazz group formed in 1972 in Soweto, South Africa. The group was made up of these members, Buta Zwane, John Mothopeng, Lancelot Mothopeng, Lekgabe Maleka, Maswaswe Mothopeng, Munich Sibiya, Sello Mothopeng, Thabang Masemola and Zulu Bidi. Born in a time when South African indigenous peoples were under oppression by the apartheid system, Batsumi members learnt to play music by ear as they could not read nor write sheet music. What makes Batsumi special is the calibre of music that they were able to produce and offer us while under oppression. Their counterparts, Masekela, Semenya and Abdullah Ibrahim to name a few were practicing their craft in exile and more often that not, exiled in the first world, Batsumi were still ducking and diving from recording studio to recording studio as they were not allowed to make the music they wanted to make. 

Despite the oppression, Batsumi offered us a great catalog of music, this included two albums, the fist was a self titled album Batrumi released in 1974, this album had tracks such as “Mamshanyana” and “Lishonile” despite their “illicit” activities according to apartheid, Batsumi took great steps to make sure their political message was not as explicit in words, but the "struggle" was inherent in the music and thus not too necessary for them to make authority rattling struggle music. In 1976 Batsumi gave us “Moving Along” a four track offering with such tracks as the album titled “Moving Along”. In a sad but real situation, the band did not earn as much as they should have as the system was against black people making a decent living, with the re-issue of their albums, we only hope the correct royalties are going to the correct people.