Azumah

Azumah was the coming together of a group of talented young dancer-musicians from Soweto (South
Africa) with musician and instrument-maker Smiles Mandla Makama of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland). Long
Time Ago is the surprising and enticing, resultant album from 1985, recorded in the house of theatre
stalwarts Des and Dawn Lindberg in Johannesburg.

Produced by David Marks (3rd Ear Music, Hidden Years Music Archive Project), Des Lindberg and Smiles
Makama, this album takes us back to a priceless musical moment in the dark and wild eighties of
apartheid South Africa. Smiles Makama is a gifted and visionary music-maker. He was born in South Africa
but grew up in eSwatini, the small kingdom enveloped by South Africa and Mozambique on each side. He
tells the story of the process leading to the recording of this remarkable album: “I was invited from Swaziland
by a Soweto-based group, Azumah. […] One of the members knew that there was a wizard in the mountains
in Swaziland, building instruments. As I was in the mountains in my hut and then I saw people arrive. They
found me. It all started there.”

Instead of simplistic images of a generic ‘Africanness’ or ‘South Africanness’ and pictures of constructed and
exotic ethnic identity, a contemporary, fresh listen to this album encourages an appreciation of the
composition and musical skill at play in this music. Few people speak about the individual innovation and
experimentation involved in the creation of this music (or the music of Amampondo for instance). “Woza
Moya” sticks out as a dark and melancholy creation, different tonally to what has come before, evoking the
work of Naná Vasconelos or Don Cherry. One thing that remains the same decades later is that encouraging
deeper listening to the sounds of the mbira, the nyunga-nyunga, the uhadi or makhoyane bows is still
challenging. Discouraging the superficial, short-lived acknowledgement of this ‘unchanging’, ‘African cultural
expression’ is the everlasting hurdle. This is made so much easier by albums like Long Time Ago: when
artists create music to be loved and entangled with, to be challenged by, derived from the musical roots and
structures of these instruments and then expanded upon with creative freedom, risk, humour and funk.
Azumah did this in 1985 and we have this album again today, newly released, to remind us of that moment
and the moments since when musicians have urned inward and done similar. As Smiles has it: “Indigenous
music doesn’t fade out. It’s just waiting to be discovered, all the time.”