Refuse / Resist Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness STORY - RUAN SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY - JACQUI VAN STADEN
BCUC’s front man, Jovi Nkosi, walks across the front of the stage inspecting fans bobbing up and down with a pulsating eagerness. There’s a hard, almost threatening expression on his face. He looks an unsuspecting show-goer, pushed up against the barrier, straight in the eyes and holds his gaze.
At the back of this dimly lit stage, a fourpiece percussion section pound out a slow and thundery rhythm. Smoke machines cloud the scene as multi-coloured light beams flit through the plumes like supernatural lightning. A moody bass line twangs along in the background. The hollow click of cowbell alongside the unwavering shake of a tambourine adds a tribal element to the sound. Through this mystical and distinctly African rhythm conjuring on stage like a shamanistic spell, the soothing female voice of backing vocalist Kgomotso Mokone emerges. Nkosi takes centre stage and talks into the microphone for the first time. “We don’t smile a lot,” he announces. “It’s not because we are unhappy, it is because we are serious.” The drums and bass guitar intensify. Mokone reaches a high notes but maintains her angelic tone. Nkosi raises his arms and blows a whistle dangling around his neck. The piercing sound kills the magical romance of the band momentarily. “This is not a joke. Tonight is not a joke,” Nkosi tells the crowd. He grabs the mic stand and closes his eyes. The band has slowly and softly started play-
ing again. Beat after beat, they build up a barricade of sound. “We are modern freedom fighters!” Nkosi says over the microphone. “We tell the story of our ancestors through our contemporary eyes. They are our ancestors, they are your ancestors.” The atmosphere has undeniably turned political and cult-like. This is, however, exactly what BCUC want to evoke: an unsettling and responsive politically charged consciousness. The wall of sound thickens as the bass guitar becomes audible again, grooving out a funky rhythm. The drums take cue and pick up the pace strike after strike. They are readying the crowd for the sheer force of sound which BCUC is about to unleash. Nkosi’s unashamed vocal style joins in on the march. After a few minutes the combinations of sounds amalgamate into a frenzy of rhythm and rhyme pushing the energy of the crowd to frantic levels. Fans are jumping around and dancing in an ecstatic trance. Eyes closed and heads shaking. This is afro-psychedelic as performed by Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness and they are blowing the crowd in Cape Town away with their message and performance.
THE LAKE
19