Letoya Makhene announces Isithunywa Sam African Spirituality Concert

She has recently launched muti-infused candles and Dlozi blankets, and now Letoya Makhene announced she has a musical concert, Isithunywa Sam African Spirituality coming up on October 7.

The actress and sangoma told TshisaLIVE the concept of her concert was a new.

“Its never been done before because we as abantwana be dlozi [children of ancestors] have never celebrated ourselves in this way before. It's so easy to be able to go to any gospel concert, you can go and watch everyone coming together, praising their spiritual beliefs and we've never had a place or platform outside imgidi as izangoma [traditional healers] to celebrate ourselves,” she said.

Makhene said she took songs which are sung when healers were gathered and recorded them in studio, and that birthed the idea. 

“With the kind of music that I'm also veering into, which is your African spiritual music, it's the type of songs that we sing imgidini [during ceremonies], it's the traditional songs that we sing ma si gida [when we chant and dance] and it's traditional ancient praise songs that we sing. I am recording an album of that sort and it started with the song Ngihawukele that I recorded a couple of years ago. I also decided to approach the State Theatre and asked them if they would be interested in giving me space to present a concert, and they came back to me with a positive answer, which is really shocking. So we are putting together a beautiful concert that will not only celebrate our African belief system but also Isthunywa [ancestral calling].

Explaining Isthunywa she said it's the prophetic side of the gift of traditional healing.

“We don't leave out anyone who feels that they are Christian. It's not just for izangoma, it's for anyone who wants to celebrate themselves as Africans, or anyone who wants to celebrate their heritage, know where they come from, understand who they are, connect with themselves and their bloodline and also for those who have the prophetic gift. It’s  literally a concert where we can all come together and celebrate ourselves as healers.”

Makhene said they were still finalising artists on the line-up, however, her father and legendary musician, music producer and sangoma Blondie Makhene is billed to perform. 

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“There are four other acts that I will identify, that I think are absolutely amazing in terms of how they celebrate being African. So they are not necessarily doing traditional music like me but it literally does invigorate the spirit in some way. I've also invited an apostle church to come through to sing and be a part of my choir as well and do a bit of their own set.”

“It is exciting and it is scary at the same time and I think because my team is used to us doing things in a slightly smaller scale until I said let us go to the Pretoria State Theatre so that you can get an idea of exactly how big this is. It is only then that my team started understanding my nerves, why I'm so scared, my excitement and why I've been pushing everyone harder than I normally would. When we walked in to the theatre they saw the auditorium and they realised how big this is.

She said she was excited for the nods from those they approached for sponsorship.

“It's a long process because outside having conceptualise it for me and being on the outside as a business developer alongside my business partner who is my wife and other people who are coming on board I'm also the performer in this show so I'm doubling up on everything.”

Letoya said she will be hosting auditions soon to get other people outside to be on board on this concert.