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

2.2 Becoming Amakholwa
during the second half of the nineteenth century there was a gradual emergence of at least three
distinct socio-economic groups from among the South African black population. The following
Zulu terminology is indicative of this distinct division of social strata: 30
Amabhinca
Amakhoiwa
Amagxagxa
those who are traditionalists,
remaining very close to their tribal way (also amaquaba or iZichoio).
those who follow Western ideologies and are generally Christians.
those who borrow ideologies from both of the previous groups
( neo-tradi tion · ali sts. ) 31
By far the largest group is made up of the amagxagxa. They occupy a rather insecure position
between non-Christian traditionalists and mission school Africans. Because they have to some extent
been influenced by the Western societies but not highly educated, one might also call them
neo-traditionalists. 32 Coplan calls them the "dressed people" or abaphakathi, "those in the middle".33
Amakhoiwa (from Zulu: khoiwa - to believe) followed the teachings of the missionaries in so far
as they "aspired to be like the English,,/4 and therefore resolved to reside on mission land. For
them, education played a major role and they readily adopted European and later African-American
"culture". They regarded themselves as progressive and "deliberately and willingly changed their
behaviour patterns and learned a new life style".35 Crucial to this cultural shift, as Nkabinde explains,
was the adoption of "a new [first] name, which was a Christian name; Western cloth, which
was no longer traditional cloth; and doing away with tradition, for example, the ancestors; and the
music that they sang was no longer traditional music".36 The designation is still in use today, as
Langa Nkosi confirms: ''Amakhoiwa, those are church goers or Christians... if you are a Christian,
you are called ikhoiwa as compared to somebody who did not understand gods as the whites understanding
or Christ as the whites understanding".37
The antonym to amakhoiwa is amaqaba, meaning the "unbelievers". According to Professor
Mzilikazi Khurnalo, Head of the Department of African Languages at the University of the Witwatersrand
until 1997, "iqaba... meant in older terms somebody who is not very polite, not very
well behaved. So it had this negative connotations. And then iqaba got to be called a non-believer by
the 'new ones",?8
30 In the Eastern Cape Colony a similar division was in existence in which Africans were labelled either as "school people"
(abantu basesikolwent) or "red-people" (abantu ababomvu) or "blanket people". The "school people" were those who
had entered the cash economy, received formal education, had changed to the Christian belief or had otherwise assimilated
prominent aspects of European culture. The "red people" maintained the old and familiar traditional patterns of
life. For a detailed discussion refer to R. H. Davis, "School vs. Blanket and Settler: Elijah Makiwane and the Leadership
of the Cape School Community", African Affairs:Journal of the furyalAfrican Society, Vol. 78. (London: Oxford University
Press, 1979): 12.
John Tengo Jabavu also saw three classes among the Cape Africans, but describes them in a slightly different way: those
who maintained an "average European mode of living" with an economic position, educational attainments, and social
values (the school elite); "[t]he more civilised who endeavour to improve themselves but are, as yet, unequal to keep up
the European standard" (the lager school community) and finally "the raw element" (Imvo ZabaNtsundu, March 18,
1901). For further discussion see: P. Mayer, Townsmen or Tribesmen (Cape Town, 1971): 3-4, 20fE.
31 M. Boon, 1996: 47-8
32 B. Mthethwa, "The Songs of A. A. Kumalo". Papers Presented at the 6'" Symposium on Ethnomusicology (Grahamstown:
International Library of African Music, 1987): 28.
33 D. Coplan, In Township Tonight! South Africa} Black City Music and Theatre. Gohannesburg: Ravan Press, 1985): 264.
34 Personal communication with Langa Nkosi, Johannesburg, July 20, 2000.
35 Bonnie B. Kel1er quoted in R. H. Davis, 1979: 12.
36 Personal communication with Thulasizwe Nkabinde,Johannesburg, November 21, 2000.
37 Personal communication with Langa Nkosi, Johannesburg, July 20, 2000.
38 Personal communication with Mzilikazi Khumalo,Johannesburg, November 20, 2000.
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