Album review: Nduduzo Makhathini’s In the Spirit of Ntu

But this is a milestone album, the musician’s 10th, and his debut release on the newly formed Blue Note Africa label. It’s steeped in knowledge of South African musical traditions, rhythms and performance, and it is intended to encapsulate his entire catalogue since his breakout project in 2012 with recurring themes and dialoguing. On his previous album Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds, released in 2022, Makhathini used the letter as a metaphor for the sounds emerging from the underworld. And before that, on Listening to the Ground (2015), he explored the idea of listening as knowing.

With In the Spirit of Ntu, he revisits this paradigm of listening to the things that emerge from the ground. We hear a glimpse of this in the opening track ‘Unonkanyamba’ as the song progresses and becomes more of a conversation with the ancestors. In the heart of the chaos and confusion, an emerging, languid horn provides the listener a chance to find comfort.

Conceptually, the album is built on the notion of ntu, an ancient African philosophy from which ubuntu – meaning ‘I am because you are’ – stems from. And within ubuntu, collectiveness becomes important, because it suggests everything living carries a vital force, which is ntu. The album is a wide-ranging dialogue that tackles the deterioration of society.

“This whole album is underpinned by ntu configured as essence, and essence as a space of origin,” Makhathini says. “I’ve found that the hinge that connects all African art, music, religions, worldviews and histories is this notion of ntu. This is the part the colonial system was not able to erase. This album is an intervention to hold on to the things that refused to be removed.”

Much of Makhathini’s narrative can be felt in his sincere and earnest compositions, which occasionally feature vocals to complement the story. He makes important production and collaborative decisions by featuring younger musicians offering a newer and more versatile approach to composition and song. The collaborations have cultural significance because they allow an exchange of knowledge sharing between different generations. And, in a way, the jazz maestro invites the younger generations to learn more about ancestry, traditional values and spirituality, tackling the common misunderstanding by older members of society who often erroneously label young people as apathetic. Among Makhathini’s musical influencers is the late iconic singer Busi Mhlongo who once said that “if you cannot touch the youth it’s very painful, it is like having children who you cannot communicate with.”

The listener is quickly introduced to some forms of this intervention with songs like ‘Mama’ where the arrangement’s movement is calm and gentle, gradually building tension – like a foetus growing in a womb. The song cleverly employs a break to dispel the idea of giving birth as something that is high-frequency. Here, Makhathini features his wife Omagugu, who composed the song for her late mother, and pays tribute to other mothers in the spiritual realm, while simultaneously questioning what it takes to be a mother. On this song, the soulful vocals are a plea for a mother’s love to continue even as she transitions on to the other world.

While you are still recuperating from the impact of ‘Mama’, the subtle percussion on ‘Amathongo' invites the listener to unite with the ‘star gods’ – where one can sleep in their immediate surroundings but be alive in another reality where time and space are suspended.

‘Emlilweni’ is another signifier of the musician’s curiosity about the symbolism of fire. Here, he uses the element to show the burning need to change things in a fragile system. The desperate call to intervene reoccurs on ‘Senze’ Nina’, which reimagines an awakened new man who embraces the inherited gentleness of his mother’s womb. Some of the most moving and powerful emotions can be projected with gentleness and sophistication. Makhathini does this supremely while still being able to maintain sonic principles; he gravitates towards new interpretations with calmness and less conflict.

The final song ‘Ntu’ confirms this. It leads listeners into a dream somewhere outside of our immediate space. The meandering journey begs for the reconfiguration of self, forcing self-introspection and a return to essence. Like the powerful voices of maskandi pioneers like Mfaz’Omnyama, musical conversations with the ancestral world can unlock codes for the listener who can see and hear it. This is what In the Spirit of Ntu does to those willing to listen with all their being.

Artist: Nduduzo Makhathini
Album: In the Spirit of Ntu
Label: Blue Note Africa
Year: 2022