The song “Shosholoza” has been recorded locally by The Drakensberg Boys Choir, the Soweto Gospel Choir, PJ Powers, and many more. It has been internationally released by Helmut Lotti and Peter Gabriel, and Dan Moyane sang “Shosholoza” at the opening of the Rugby World Cup in 1995.
As early as the 19th century, gold mines were expanding in the Transvaal area, attracting many Ndabele to the region and offering them opportunities as mineworkers. Ndabele – also known as Matebele – are divided along the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, which is why Northern Ndabele hail from Zimbabwe while Southern Ndabele hail from the Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces in South Africa. Both are harmonious people, easily identified by their colorful clothing, painted faces, and exquisite beadwork and tapestry. The “rondavels” in which they live, which are like round bungalows, are brightly painted in the most extraordinary fashions. The song “Shosholoza” has been recorded locally by The Drakensberg Boys Choir, the Soweto Gospel Choir, PJ Powers, and many more. It has been internationally released by Helmut Lotti and Peter Gabriel, and Dan Moyane sang “Shosholoza” at the opening of the Rugby World Cup in 1995, which was won by South Africa. In 2009, Clint Eastwood directed the movie Invictus, about this historic sports moment, and the a cappella group Overtone recorded yet another cover for it.
“Shosholoza” is sung in the call-and-response style, in which a lead singer calls out a line which is then repeated by the choir. This poignant song stirs deep emotions within the listener, especially during live performances. “Shosholoza” translates as “to go forward” and it refers to the trains on which Ndabele folk traveled to reach the mines of South Africa. This sheds light on the modern name for long-distance passenger trains in South Africa, Shosholoza Meyl. The following line, “Ku lezontaba,” suggests why some versions of this song end with “eSouth Africa” and others with “eRhodesia.” There is no right or wrong version, and which one is heard depends on the direction the mineworkers are heading toward, either work or their homeland of Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe). “Ku” means “from” and “inTaba” translates as “mountains,” illustrating the kind of terrain crossed by the mineworkers on their way to or from work.
Then, the lyrics read, “Stimela siphum ‘eSouth Africa/Rhodesia.” “Stimela” derives from the isiZulu noun “isiTimela” (pronounced “steam-ela”) or “steamer.” In this case, it is referring to the steam trains that transported the Ndebele. “Siphum,” meanwhile, derives from “sipha” or “stem,” which suggests the steam trains “stem” or come from South Africa.
In order to understand why this song became so politicized, especially during the Apartheid era, it is essential to grasp the metaphorical meaning of the words and thus understand the timelessness of the lyrics. This song is as old as the mining history of South Africa. It is easy for the song to lose meaning when the words are directly translated into English. The train represents the miners as a whole, a group of people bearing heavy burdens and being shunted across endless mountains. These mountains, in turn, refer to Apartheid and to the commitment needed to complete the crossing. Nelson Mandela himself, the man who transformed Apartheid into democracy, says in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom that this “song compares the Apartheid struggle to the motion of an incoming train.” “Shosholoza” has long been affectionately known as the Second National Anthem, offering a sense of unity to the Rainbow Nation.
