Muneyi's album 'Makhulu' is filled with 'lessons in love, loss and healing'

Gentle guitar riffs and Muneyi Masibigiri's pining voice permeate Lufuno, imbuing the song with a sense of longing or, rather, loss.

As the artist, who goes by Muneyi on stage, explains: "It's a song about someone leaving home and not coming back. I started writing it as an academic essay about how the diamond trade contributed to fatherlessness in our communities."

Lufuno comes from the artist's debut album Makhulu, an ode to his grandmother consisting of 10 tracks that are "lessons in love, loss and healing".

Dropping last week Friday, the album is a culmination of the indie-folk artist's steady ascent in South African music since many were first exposed to his offerings as a finalist in the 2019 Afropunk Battle of the Bands.

His journey, however, begins back home in Tshilapfene, Venda, not far from Thohoyandou, where he grew up in his grandmother's care. "I didn't grow up in a musical family. Not on my mother's side. It's also not a very religious family, but in my teens I started going to church and the church I went to had a lively worship culture that I wanted to be part of."

Setting his sights on joining the church choir, Muneyi auditioned, only to be told "you sound like you're singing in the shower".

"I licked my wounds and joined my school choir, which didn't have any formal setup; just a few learners who got together to rehearse and sing together, mostly at assembly on Fridays," he says.

After enrolling at the University of Venda, Muneyi joined the church there, borrowing a guitar from the pastor and learning how to play — but this would be short-lived. "I dropped out and moved to Johannesburg in 2014."

Here, Muneyi would move in with a friend who was a musician and part of a church worship team. The worship leader gifted him with a guitar and he took it up again, writing what he describes as "English pop songs".

"I love making my grandmother proud and as I was writing these English pop songs I thought to myself 'but my grandmother won't understand this'. That's when I started writing in Tshivenda and only then did I realise that I actually have something to say.

"Sometimes as a writer you write from your personal experiences, but sometimes I feel like I'm articulating my ancestors' experiences."

Lufuno is an example of this, but so are most of the tracks on the album. As I listen to the album, I find myself particularly drawn to Mbebo Yo Shashata, a searing tune titled after the Tshivenda idiom which - directly translated to English - means "the womb is cracked".

"It's something people say when a child who's been raised with good values goes astray. He may be rowdy or lacking in respect and his family may have done all they can but it becomes apparent that the child is who he is. With this language, it creates an excuse for this behaviour by blaming it on anything other than the person — maybe genetics," says Muneyi.

The narrative is about a parent's pain, questioning why this child is the way it is.

Makhulu features Zoë Modiga, Ogudlumkhukhu, TaXda (pronounced Tatenda) and S'fiso Atomza. The latter two are members of the band Muffinz. Ogudlumkhukhu, featured on Tshifhiwa, is an artist from northern KwaZulu-Natal who Muneyi met at school.

"I had a guitar on me, and usually that attracts a lot of attention from people. He approached me and told me that he was a musician too so we decided to jam together," Muneyi says.

"The first time we did, his talent took me by surprise. His music is typically mbaqanga, which is a sound I grew up with. It felt like a blessing to be able to work with someone who embodies that."

For his song Mbidzo, which is about loneliness and healing and features Zoë Modiga, Muneyi was keen to bring in the acclaimed artist to add vocals.

"I was experiencing a lot of loneliness. I used to talk to my grandmother a lot about her loneliness too. I wanted to convey her experience and so I needed to bring in a feminine energy that I felt I couldn't create myself. Even though one can be in touch with their feminine side, I feel that, as a male, I could never fully embody the full spectrum of that experience. Zoë immediately understood that."

Although the album is mostly in Tshivenda, Muneyi's mother tongue, the guests sing in isiZulu.

"I think it's important to make music that embraces and fuses all of our cultures," Muneyi explains, confirming as intentional my suggestion that he's becoming an ambassador for Tshivenda as a language.

"I love language. There aren't enough people representing Tshivenda so, for me, beyond being an ambassador for the language, I think we have a responsibility to preserve our languages, and I want to be at the forefront of doing that."

• Muneyi's album 'Makhulu' is available on all streaming platforms. The album launch with Concerts SA will be held at Blend-It Café in Melville, Johannesburg on Sunday May 23. Tickets are available via Quicket.