Hope, love, ubuntu and The Voice
- Wits University
Vusi Mahlasela enthralled a packed house at a one-night only performance at Wits.
A hush descended as the house lights dropped in the Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall, then erupted into thunderous applause when the legendary Vusi ‘The Voice’ Mahlasela walked on stage. Billed as an ‘intimate performance,’ Vusi, his voice, and his guitar wove a provocative narrative during “a night of poetry and music.”
In conversation throughout with his enraptured audience, the 60-year-old singer-songwriter performed 14 songs (and an encore, Iphupho, by Steve Kekana). Vusi’s observations and reflections on torrid times, past and present, were pointed, poignant, often funny. He began with Afrika my beginning, which in the context of current affairs, brings “hope, love and ubuntu.”
As a musician whose oeuvre inspired many anti-apartheid activists in the 1980s, Vusi remembered “police playing with our dead corpses” during the struggle. “And if they come forward, we will forgive them,” he said. “But if not, then we will expose them.”
The “wisdom of forgiveness” (Vusi’s 1994 album of that name) inherent in the song Troubadour reflects the concept of ubuntu that Vusi and his music espouses. Ubuntu is an isiZulu word translating to a shared humanity and interconnectedness. It is a value and philosophy advanced by South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela.
“Embedded in that ubuntu is everyday kindness, reconciliation, redistribution of … knowledge,” Vusi said mischievously—to laughs from an audience profoundly aware of the thorny ‘redistribution of land’ issue that rages in this country.
With Vusi on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, his ensemble included Elwyn Masango on bass guitar while spellbinding spoken word, by acclaimed poet Professor Pitika Ntuli, accompanied Vusi’s song Freedom in our lifetime. Sotho-songbird Sarah Mpuhuti was on backing vocals in Silang mabele, Vusi’s “call to fight poverty”. Tsholofelo Papo was on lead guitar and Ago Agbodohu on percussion.
A veritable singalong ensued with Vusi’s uplifting When you come back (performed just before the interval), which he said is “about apartheid’s architect” [H.F. Verwoerd], and Vusi emphasized that “democracy must be protected.”
After the interval, poet Antoinette Ntuli wove words about long-distance love, while the soundtrack included songs Our sand, Everytime, Moshito/Tonkana, River Jordan, Miyela Africa, Say Africa, and Miriam Makeba’s Nomeva.
The one night only intimate concert by South Africa’s legendary Vusi Mahlasela was made possible by the Derek Schrier and Cecily Cameron Foundation—enduring Wits benefactors now it the United States. Associate Professor Carlo Mombelli, Head of Wits Music, said in his welcome that music and the arts is alive and thriving at Wits University.
The concert took place in the 181-seater, increasingly iconic Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall, whose namesake enabled its establishment for Wits’ centenary in 2022.
Wits Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Imraan Valodia, who facilitated Vusi’s performance on 27 May 2025, said that “music is part of our history and our future”. Music – and hope, love, and ubuntu.