Malombo music’s legendary drummer and percussionist Julian Bahula passed away recently after a long battle with cancer. New generation musician Azah Mphago who was inspired by the eccentric sounds of Malombo pays tribute to the celebrated elder
I HAVE always been inspired by malome Julian’s vibe, his aura and personality. He was somewhat of an enigma, like a character from a movie. He was also an Afropolitan in a contemporary urban context, symbolic of a neo-African who is a global citizen, delocalised, an Afro-futuristic character.
His sense of fashion style, albeit more eclectic and flamboyant well decorated ka kota (stylish dresser). He was what we would call grootmane ya chipi in today’s Spitori, a type of slang spoken in Pretoria and surrounds.
“We must always make something about the Malombo music,” malome Julian would always speak about his passion to keep the music alive.
He was also very happy to learn about what we, the current generation were doing musically.
On the occasion of his lifelong friend and musical brother Dr Philip Tabane’s funeral on 27 May 2018, he expressed satisfaction at the level of growth he was witnessing from us, the later generation who have continued the Malombo legacy.
He was always encouraging us to unite and work together because we are the torch bearers from where they had left off.
He was impressed by the fact that I had previously worked with members of the original founders of Malombo, Abbey Cindi (flautist) and Mabi Thobejane (drummer and percussionist) on my debut album Batswadi.
In the album I was paying tribute to our elders and parents, and our ancestors, both living and the dead. He was deeply touched to also learn that I had performed with his good friend, Tabane on his last performance at the Roots of Humankind festival at the Nirox Sculpture Park, alongside a duet comprising Madala Kunene and Pops Muhammed. This was just as a few months before Tabane’s passing in 2018.
I feel deep love for these elders and I am truly honoured to have walked amongst such gods and breathed the same air as they did.
I realise we are made something because our empty lives are touched by gods. We are composed into deeper sonic libraries and memories. We are chosen and set apart, despite what may sometimes appear to be an existential displacement.
I chose to embrace an optimistic outlook for the future of this continent as a Pan-Africanist who embraces the African agenda.
I have been inspired by the likes of malome Julian who were true gallant fighters. Even in the minimal interaction I’ve had with him, I have learnt so much from the stories I’ve heard many people mention about the character that he was, dedicated to idealistic goals for the creative sector.
His biggest dream was to host a big festival in Mamelodi. Incidentally, I have just premiered an annual festival in Mamelodi at Mothong Heritage Site located on the top of the Mogale mountains.
This place was a dumping site where apartheid soldiers were said to torture comrades who camped there in the 80’s. But it has since been rehabilitated by Dr Ephraim Mabena.
This is how we young people honour malome Julian. We are not waiting for government, we are making dreams come true just as he did. We can only hope that someday our people will see us, as he saw us young people with potential, born in a country with potential and they will embrace us as their own.
A man of the people
Malome Julian was born in Eersterus on 13 March 1938 before his family was forcibly moved to Mamelodi sometime in the 50s. Mamelodi, meaning Mother of melodies because of the etymological lexicon and prefix Ma-Mother and the suffix melodi-melody the township that has come to be called the jazz Capital of South Africa.
The creative activist and cultural ambassador that he was, he was a pioneer who mobilised and organised the international community in solidarity to the anti-apartheid community with the first free Nelson Mandela Concert at the Wimbledon stadium in the UK in 1988. He was awarded the presidential order of Ikhamanga for his contribution to our democracy.
A creative, a father, a grandfather, a brother, malome Julian was a people’s person, dearly loved and deeply appreciated by everyone for his generosity and passion for people. Although he was sometimes considered controversial to others, be that as it may, the consensus remains that malome Julian was a refuge where everyone, young and old alike ran to.
His home in London where he was exiled during the apartheid years, was an oasis for South African who were abroad. He was a highly esteemed individual with friends in high places.
Malombo Jazzmen
He enjoyed an illustrious career in the creative sector from his formative Malombo Jazzmen era at the beginning of the 1960s.
This was when he Abbey Cindi and Philip Nchipi Tabane, with nothing but a simple flute, super 200 Gibson guitar and few malombo drums made of cow hide, took to the stage at Orlando Stadium to marvel a silent crowd.
They won the hearts of thousands of audience members against some of the most decorated and favourite jazz bands who permeated the cultural misorientation of the common and popular American Jazz styles prevalent at the time, due to the music hegemony through bias profiling of American jazz as superior to indigenous African traditional music at the time.
A griot of the malombo music, the grandmaster drummer has granted us permission to fully realise our joy, pain, exhaustion and sense of wonder through which the true meaning to the heartbeat of black existence and free time could be fully realised.
The Malombo epoch birthed a paradigm change and lens through which Africans were to view themselves and to asserting themselves as a people, similar to what Steve Biko called Black Consciousness.
The trio rose to stardom through that unique melodic ancestral sounds of the malombo that is associated with the healing spirits of the ancestors, an indigenous, pre-colonial African spiritual presence and sound.
This was to be their signature cosmic harmonic sound which today has been the most influential genre that produced a cult like following and many bands later on, from the so called Jazz Capital.
They influenced thinkers, writers, artists, cultural activists, through their malombo anecdotal sounds of Afrika centeredness.
But now the great baobab has fallen! We bemoan the passing of this giant, Julian Sebothane Bahula who transitioned on 1 October 2023, departed to rejoin other members of the Malombo ensemble in the spiritual paradigm.
Bahula from the story of your life, we can all learn so much, young and old, from now on forever let peace be upon you. Let us not bother you in your final place of eternal rest asking for luck when we think we have bad luck but we fail to love one another. Let us beat the drum for those who are lost in a bunch.
Mošate weeeee! Robala senatla, sekgwari sa mmino wa malopo, a bo Bahula, bo Cindi, bo Tabane, bo Thobejane, bo Monareng, bo Mohapi, tameng ka mokana, nna setlogolo sa Mphago wa Mabasa Mokone wa ntšhi dikgolo, maila nonyane ya tlhantlhagane kere ngwedi o tswile, it’s a new dawn. The drum is singing a new song, a song of love, a song of unity,a song of peace.
*Azah (born Tinyiko Mpho Mphago wa Mabasa) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, musical director cultural activist, educator and philanthropist from the South African Jazz capital Mamelodi in Pretoria.
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