The Boubou and Post-Colonial African Musical Performances: Ami Koïta, Bi Kidude, and Sibongile Khumalo

Abstract

Fashion and music share a relationship as mediums used to project the identities of post- colonial female vocalists. When viewed from post-colonial African contexts, the boubou is an item used to express these identities. Using the performances of Ami Koïta, Bi Kidude, and Sibongile Khumalo between 1995 and 2013, this article analyzes their use of the boubou. My research shows that Koïta’s use of the boubou coincides with her innovative and controversial musical composition, argued herein, and works to express her “solo artist” status. Kidude’s garb demonstrates her attempt to show her Zanzibari and African artist identity. Khumalo’s garb expresses a South African and African musician identity and projects South Africa as a “new nation.” These findings suggest that when used in various locales, the boubou holds context- specific meanings that align with each country’s socio-cultural and socio-political contexts. While this clothing item has been affiliated with fashion designers and tailors and their contribution to the African fashion and clothing system, this article’s contribution is the role played by female vocalists. These women show their identities through fashion and music and cement the boubou’s position as an important item of the African clothing and fashion system.

Keywords:

• Ami Koïta
• Bi Kidude
• boubou
• post-colonial identities
• Sibongile Khumalo

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge critical reading and feedback given by Dr. Isaiah Negedu on the first full draft of this article. I also acknowledge the support of Dr. Christel Troskie-de Bruin who was my allocated critical reader of the draft article at the writing retreat. Prof. Ruth Albertyn is acknowledged for the lectures and guidance during the writing retreat. The writing retreat would not have happened without the Academic Acceleration Mentorship Programme an initiative developed by my employer the University of Johannesburg; the organisers of the programme are acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A search on their Wikipedia pages describes Kidude, Khumalo and Koïta as ‘singers’ and thus, in this article, the word ‘vocalists’ is used as a collectivizing term. I am aware that the title is limiting as it has potential of positioning Kidude, Khumalo and Koïta as singers solely while denying them other roles within music such as instrumentalists, producers, and composers, among others. They are also instrumentalists, for example, Hamid (1996) and Patel (2009) describe Kidude as a drummer. The written note for her conferment of the 2008 Order in IKhamanga in Silver describes Khumalo as having studied the violin (The Presidency n.d.). In an interview with Durán (2000, 169), Ami Koïta notes that she is in charge of the composition of her own music.

2 The inscription of her name varied between Ami and Amy. As a step to achieve consistency for this article, I analyzed the covers of her albums and found that there were inconsistencies there too. However, when I viewed videos of her on YouTube her name is Ami and not the English name variant Amy. Therefore, for this article I write her name as Ami. In addition, the surname is spelled in various ways, Koita and Koïta. As Mali was a French-colonized country and the ï is evident in French writing, I use the ï.

3 There is conflicting information about when she was born, Durán (2000) writes that she was born in 1951 whereas her Wikipedia page states 1952 as her year of birth.

4 Jeliya refers to the art of the jeli and jelimuso.

5 A sumu is a ritual or informal celebration (Durán 2007, 574).

6 The kanga is a colorful, printed wrap cloth worn mainly by women of the eastern coast of Africa.

7 Mountain Shade is a jazz song composed by the late South African jazz artist Moses Taiwa Molelekwa (born 1973, died 2001) and was released in his 1994 album Finding one’s self. Originally solely instrumental, Khumalo wrote lyrics to the music and covered it in her debut album Ancient evenings (1996).

8 The backing vocalists are Vicky Vilakazi, Margaret Motsage, and the late Wendy Mseleku, who were members of the gospel groups Family Factory and Joyous Celebration. An area worth further research are the early days of Joyous Celebration. The members wore robes sewn boubou-style as their uniform. This connects to the use of very similar style used by the choir members at the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. Sibongile Khumalo invited some of these choir members to be backing vocalists, and in addition, she was featured on Joyous Celebration’s debut album as a guest artist.

9 The group’s name, Uhadi, is named after the traditional Xhosa musical instrument of the same name. The instrument is a musical bow that is attached to a resonator. In the Zulu language, the instrument is called umakhweyana and in the Sotho language it is called thomo. In contemporary times, players of the instrument include Madonisi Manqineni and Bavikile Ngema.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Khaya Mchunu

Khaya Mchunu is a senior lecturer in the Department of Fashion Design, University of Johannesburg. He obtained his Ph.D. in Visual and Performing Arts from the Durban University of Technology. He currently has two research interests. The first is studying community sewing practices in the South African context. The second is the link between fashion, clothing, and public figures, an interest area broadly approached through biographical research. [email protected]; [email protected]