Artists

Rachel Magoola, born of music teacher parents, started singing at an early age. She joined the school choir aged seven and sang throughout her youth both at school and her local church. Rachel trained as a music teacher and taught for eleven years at Namasagali College, a secondary school and read more

Sphiwe Ngwenya, aka Mamillion, hails from Soweto. He is inspired by township life, changes challenges. He aims to take kwaito back to the TKZee era with his beats, whilst fused with a modern sensibility.

Mamillion's main objective is to entertain while dominating the kwaito scene.

Mamillion's recent debut CD, Phakama is filled read more

Solo and Ellika first met on the stage of a club in Stockholm in 1998. There, Senegalese griot music met the Swedish polska.

Solo Cissoko is a griot from a very long story-telling tradition; Ellika Frisell's music has deep roots in the wildly joyous story-telling tradition of Bingsjo. Together they make read more

Born in Kagoshima, Japan in 1974, Sakaki Mango studied the Swahili language at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies, where he also began his research on the music of Tanzania. He travelled to Africa to receive direct training from the late Hukwe Ubi Zawose (then leader of the Tanzanian National read more

Of all the bands that immigrated to East Africa, Super Mazembe has stood the test of time.

Super Mazembe started in 1969 in Likasi, near Lubumbashi, DRC as Super Vox. On tour in neighbouring Zambia during 1970, the band met Nashil Pichen Kazembe, a diehard supporter of one of read more

Kikundi cha Taifa (National Taarab Orchestra) of Zanzibar was founded many years ago, having a flexible set up but always featuring the cream of the crop of taarab musicians from the Islands.

The group is presently under the artistic direction of two of Zanzibar's taarab maestros, Mr Iddi Suwedi of Culture read more