May is a marvelous month for African music festivals

These gigs are proving that there is the talent - and the audience - for an African touring circuit. So make hay while the last of the sun shines and get to one - or more, writes Tymon Smith

It's getting cold in Joburg.

Winter is coming and - because you're a sensible person who hasn't wasted your money and energy trekking to the desert to consume copious amounts of drugs and pretend that AfrikaBurn is not a horrible excuse for acting out the worst excesses of white privilege - you're looking for one last chance to shake your booty and remind yourself that, like Thabo Mbeki, you're an African.

So what can you do?

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Well, you're in luck, because May is the merry month of cosmopolitan, pan-African musical celebrations and, depending on your budget, energy levels and location, you have plenty of options.

There's no excuse for not getting up and getting out, beginning with the seventh Azgo Festival in Maputo on May 20, continuing with the 11th MTN Bushfire Festival in Swaziland, the third Zakifo festival in Durban (both from May 26-28), a Joburg gig by Damian "Junior Gong" Marley at what used to be the Bassline in Newtown on May 26, the 13th Bassline Africa Day concert at Nasrec, Johannesburg, on May 27, and, for diehards with the means, the 14th Sakifo Musik Festival on the island of Réunion.

Thanks to a newly formalised initiative called Igoda - Zulu for "knot" or to "bind together" - several of the artists performing will appear at all five of the festivals, taking advantage of what is envisioned as the first incarnation of a regional touring circuit.

For Joburg, the focus is on the Bassline Africa Day concert. It began in 2004 when the legendary Melville jazz club founded by Brad Holmes moved to Newtown.

At the time, recalls Holmes, "the Johannesburg Development Agency was a super-dynamic organisation and everybody wanted to work there . and they came to me as the music guy to say, 'Do an African music concert and make it for Africa Day in commemoration of the founding of the AU.'"

The first edition was headlined by Zimbabwean guitarist Oliver Mtukudzi and Bassline stalwart Vusi Mahlasela. It was a free concert and, as Holmes remembers, "it was full and it was fantastic."

From there the concert became a platform for performances from some of the continent's best known stars - from Amadou and Mariam (before their breakout Manu Chao-produced album Dimanche à Bamako) to Ismaël Lô, Femi Kuti and Kanye West's favourite Nigerian Rapper D'banj.

The concert has since moved, from Dries Niemandt Park in Ekurhuleni and now to the amphitheatre at Nasrec, and while it's no longer free it continues to focus its attention on the diaspora audiences of post-apartheid, pan-African Johannesburg.

block_quotes_start We're saying it's possible to tour in Africa and get audiences. The real ubuntu must start now and culture is a great enabler for that

Since inception, the approach on the part of Holmes and his business partner wife Paige has been to "do a legendary African act and then balance it out with younger acts and then a South African legend and a South African youth act in the mix".

This year will see Thandiswa Mazwai, Ray Phiri and Vusi Mahlasela representing South Africa; while Zimbabwean Jah Prayzah, Congolese-Belgian Baloji, Niger's Tuareg guitarist Bombino, Ghana's Jojo Abot and Belgian-born, Cape Town-based indie superstar Petite Noir are among those adding to the pan-African flavour of the event.

Holmes believes that "what differentiates our audience from any other audience that goes to a fairly big concert in South Africa is that Bassline has a long, long reputation of bringing out African music.

We've done more African music than any other venue or promoter, probably in South African history."

As to the benefits of Igoda, Holmes believes it's not just an association looking out for the interests of promoters but one that also benefits artists and audiences.

That's a sentiment echoed by Paulo Chibanga, former drummer of 340ml and organiser of the Azgo Festival in Maputo, who sees the initiative as the beginning of a process that will ultimately "see a full Afro tour, where artists can do 33 gigs across the continent.

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"With Igoda, we're saying it's possible to tour in Africa and get audiences . the real ubuntu must start now and culture is a great enabler for that."

It's also a means of encouraging tourism from outside the continent. As Zakifo's Sipho Sithole points out, "We are trying to promote cultural tourism within the circuit.

Fans can now enjoy a festival at Azgo a weekend before and then travel down to South Africa to attend a festival at Bassline Africa Day in Joburg and thereafter decide to travel to Swaziland for Bushfire or Durban for Zakifo."

In times of uncertainty and anxiety it is, as the original Bassline's slogan used to remind us, in music that we should trust.

With so many opportunities to experience some of the best of what the region has to offer, can you really afford to sit alone in your room poring over angry Facebook feeds and grumbling about the "banana republic", before winter really arrives and you're left with nothing but regret and dry sinuses?

THE HIGHLIGHTS

JOJO ABOT

Ghanaian artist Jojo Abot is a multidisciplinarian performer who works in music, film, photography, literature and performance art. Her unique form of personal expression has taken her around the world, most recently to New York, where she was part of the New Museum's incubator programme.

She'll be touring with Lauryn Hill later this year and has coined the term "Afro-Hyno-Sonic" to describe her sound, which combines elements of electronic, indie and hip-hop. See jojoabot.com.

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JAH PRAYZAH

Known in his native Zimbabwe as Musoja, the Shona word for soldier, because of his signature on-stage military get-up, Mukudzeyi Mukombe, who performs as Jah Prayzah has released six studio albums.

Watori Mari, his recent collaboration with Tanzanian artist Diamond Platinumz, has had massive success on YouTube, MTV Base and Trace Africa. See jahprayzah.com.

RAY PHIRI

From his early days as a founding member of The Cannibals in the 1970s, the frontman for Stimela in the '80s and his work with Paul Simon on Graceland, Ray Phiri has established himself as one of the true legends of South African music both at home and abroad. His appearance at Azgo in Maputo marks a long-awaited return to the city.

At 70, one of Africa's most celebrated musicians shows no signs of slowing down in his quest to "never stop discovering, creating and exploring, [because] in the end it's your art that remains when everything else has gone".

FESTIVAL DETAILS

AZGO FESTIVAL

When: Saturday, May 20

Where: Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique

Highlights: Freshlyground, Nonku Phiri, Batuk, Ghorwane, Maria Gadú

Tickets:entradaz.co.mz

DAMIAN "JR GONG" MARLEY LIVE IN JOBURG

When: May 26

Where: Groove Live (formerly the Bassline) Newtown

Tickets:computicket.com

MTN BUSHFIRE

When: Friday, May 26 - Sunday, May 28

Where: House of Fire, Malkerns Valley, Swaziland

Highlights: Hugh Masekela, TKZee, The Kiffness, Kwesta, Faada Freddy

Tickets:bush-fire.com

ZAKIFO

When: Friday, May 26 - Sunday, May 28

Where: Blue Lagoon Beach, Durban

Highlights: Damian Marley, The Soil, Nova Twins, Tiggs Da Author

Tickets:Computicket, zakifo.com

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BASSLINE AFRICA DAY

When: Saturday, May 27

Where: Nasrec

Highlights: Thandiswa Mazwai, Jah Prayzah, Ray Phiri, Vusi Mahlasela, Petite Noir

Tickets:ticketpros.co.za, bassline.co.za