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A Nation Divided, but Under a Groove
Freshlyground's flutist Simon Attwell, bassist Josh Hawks and singer Zolani Mahola performing in Cape Town.
(By Craig Timberg -- The Washington Post)
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The breakthrough came a year later, when the band began playing concerts in South Africa's black townships -- a development that initially unnerved band co-founder Simon Attwell, 27, who grew up in Zimbabwe.
"At first, I felt very uncomfortable up on stage, a white guy playing the flute in front of a black audience, feeling very white, not quite cool enough," he recalled.
But to the amazement of Attwell and other members, their black fans danced, cheered and even sang along to lyrics they clearly knew. The trick was that Freshlyground finally had a deal with a major label, Sony BMG Africa, and their songs were getting radio play. One catchy tune, "Doo Be Doo," suddenly seemed to be everywhere. Other hits soon followed.
Some of Mahola's lyrics have dark themes about AIDS and struggling families, but the songs are personal, emotionally direct and, frequently, exuberant. They are also only lightly political in a country whose artists often have been consumed by racial struggle.
With Mahola's intimate and often theatrical style on stage, the band seems to be playing music for the fun of it. Occasionally, Freshlyground even plays a frenzied version of Britney Spears's ". . . Baby One More Time," done in the klezmer style of Jewish pop.
"I love them," said Jenny Kriel, 45, a Cape Town city worker, after another concert here. "They're the new craze in Cape Town."
But more often than not, it is a craze still experienced separately. In a single day last month, Freshlyground played before a nearly all-white audience in suburban Johannesburg, then, hours later, to a nearly all-black audience nearby in Soweto. Mixed crowds still happen less often than band members would like.
Yet as Freshlyground's fan base diversifies, its members increasingly long to be viewed beyond the lens of race, purely as musicians. Mahola said she has grown weary of being praised by fans for teaching white people "how to groove."
When one black fan told her that after a recent concert, Mahola said she replied, with a touch of irritation, "We've taught each other how to groove."
