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Umbombela
“The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even as it tells a sad tale. You may be poor, you may have only a ramshackle house, you may have lost your job, but that song gives you hope.”
– Nelson Mandela
In this song, a father from Umbombela wakes up with the sunrise and gently sings this song. When his child hears this, they know that their father is going to work far away in the mines and the train is going to take their father away from his family.
Soweto Gospel Choir recorded this song for their album ‘Freedom’ to commemorate what would have been Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday in 2018. This song, when performed by a choir, can be seen as symbolic of the wider struggles of life during the Apartheid Era.
