South African Choral Music (Amakwaya): Song, Contest and the ...

8.3 Adult and Community Choirs
... those competitions from Mark Radebe's time up to the TUATA and ATASA times, the choirs that did
win, only won trophies and maybe certificates. That's all that they won.... And with no sponsorship for
those competitions, a choir that had won, to a large extent had to transport itself to where the Finals
would be - unless with a small subsidy from the body that had organised the local elimination. But otherwise
the schools had to see to it that they raise funds or whatever, the parents had to pay for the children
to go to either the provincial finals or the national Finals. But then with Ford coming to the picture
for the first time there was prize money to be won - only at the finals, not at the eliminations. But choirs
that had won the eliminations would be transported to the finals. Completely, they would be bussed over
and they would be accommodated in a hotel. Whereas with these school choir competitions if you had
won - I myself was exposed to that a number of years while I was teaching - you would actually be accommodated
in a normal school, not a school with dormitories, just a normal classroom. Then you just
come in and shift desks and put two blankets on the floor or whatever or on the desk themselves and
sleep there... But at times we would get into nearby houses, just to request to be given the bathroom,
and people would open their houses for teachers and for kids as well. So to have a nice wash, dress up
for the competition, and come back and sleep.l49
The son of Khabi Mngoma, Linda Mngoma, who now works as a concert organiser in Johannesburg,
considers the commercialisation and the introduction of prize money to be responsible for
the fact that many other initiatives in the field of choral music "died a natural death".15o Money was
indeed a great incentive for the choirs and the practice of offering prizes for the winners proved to
be a stimulating factor in the choral community. To the present day, choristers and their conductors
talk excitedly about the inauguration year of Ford Choirs in Contest, when Ford donated a sixty-five
seater bus to the Soweto Teachers' Choir, the winner of the competition. Thus the prospect of
winning became even more desirable for the choirs. As a result "adult choirs mushroomed. [Singing]
was not only a thing for the schools and the churches [anymore,] but even for the communities!
Just because of this competition, because of the prizes and so on, those incentives. And that helped
to develop the standard of choral music".151
Thulasizwe Nkabinde's comment touches on the important fact that, by targeting adult choirs,
church choirs and choirs from tertiary institutions, this contest was instrumental in developing
choral music further in the communities. Ford Choirs in Contest, which eventually developed into
the NCF, took up some important concepts developed in earlier competitions by pioneers like Mark
Radebe. In its focus on adult choirs, the NCF followed the leads of the Johannesburg Bantu Music
Festival, which aimed to promote talent outside the schools. In fact the introduction of the Ford
Choirs in Contest had a revolutionary effect on the composition of the choral community. Even
though, prior to 1976, choral singing was popular amongst black middle class (as we have seen in
the case of the various touring choirs coming from the communities), the common understanding
was that choral music was more of an activity for school children, their teachers and maybe their
parents than for adults. 152 This perception was, of course, largely conveyed by the choral contests,
which were with some exceptions promoted and handled by Teachers' Associations. Moreover, up
to the time of the Ford Choirs Contest, the adult sections of almost any competition, including,
those of the Johannesburg Bantu Music Festival, attracted chiefly teachers' choirs. This explains
Thulasizwe Nkabinde's claim that "the teachers' choirs [were] the forerunners of what [are] now
referred to as community choirs".153 He argued that the community choirs came into being when
149 Personal communication with Ludumo Magangane, Springs,]uly 19, 2001.
150 Personal communication with Linda Mngoma, Johannesburg, SABC, February 16, 2001.
151 Personal communication with Thulasizwe Nkabinde,]ohannesburg, SABC,]uly 17, 2000.
152 Nhlapho, 1993.
153 Nkabinde, 2000.
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