The tune Abdullah Ibrahim improvised at a prepared upright piano in Cape Town in June 1974, with Basil Coetzee taking the first solo. The groove is marabi, the saxophone sound is langarm and the beat sits close to a slow goema. Coetzee and Jansen then played it at rally after rally, and it became the anti-apartheid anthem of Cape Town.
Did you know?
Abdullah Ibrahim's 1974 tune is spelt with three n's. The Cape Flats township it is named for has two. The published accounts explain the song, but not the extra letter.
Music Manenberg 1974 Cape Town
Source: SAHA Sunday Times Heritage Project: Mannenberg · Africa Is a Country: How Rashid Vally showed us the way
Did you know?
Abdullah Ibrahim recorded "Mannenberg" in Cape Town in June 1974 with Basil Coetzee, Robbie Jansen, Morris Goldberg and Monty Weber, produced by Rashid Vally for the As-Shams label.
Music Manenberg 1974 Cape Town
Source: SAHA Sunday Times Heritage Project: Mannenberg · Africa Is a Country: How Rashid Vally showed us the way
Did you know?
The saxophonist on "Mannenberg" was born in District Six in 1944. His family was moved to Manenberg in 1969 under the Group Areas Act, and the township name became his own.
Music District Six 1944–1998 Cape Town
Source: South African History Online: Basil Coetzee · Wikipedia: Basil Coetzee
Did you know?
Radio would not play it and the big labels were not interested, so Rashid Vally played "Mannenberg" on speakers outside his Kohinoor record shop. Africa Is a Country reports that he sold 5,000 copies in the first week.
Music 1974 Cape Town
Source: Africa Is a Country: How Rashid Vally showed us the way · SAHA Sunday Times Heritage Project: Mannenberg
Did you know?
Mason argues that Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen turned a 1974 hit into an anthem by putting it at the centre of rallies and benefit concerts through the 1980s, including the youth festival at the national launch of the UDF in August 1983.
Music Cape Town 1983–1990 Cape Town
Source: John Edwin Mason, "Mannenberg": Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem, African Studies Quarterly 9(4), 2007 · South African History Online: Basil Coetzee
Did you know?
John Edwin Mason reports that the title came from Morris Goldberg mentioning a visit to Gladys Williams, his family's former housekeeper in Manenberg. Rashid Vally chose a more marketable album title, but Williams's photograph went on the cover.
Music Manenberg 1974 Cape Town
Source: John Edwin Mason, "Mannenberg": Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem, African Studies Quarterly 9(4), 2007 · As-Shams / The Sun Records: About
Did you know?
South African History Online dates the planning of Manenberg to November 1964 and its establishment to 1966. Between 1966 and 1970, 5,621 dwellings were built there for a population of 33,922.
Places Manenberg 1966–1970 Cape Town
Source: South African History Online: Manenberg, Cape Flats · John Edwin Mason, "Mannenberg": Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem, African Studies Quarterly 9(4), 2007
Did you know?
Mason reports that after the record took off, Vally admitted he lacked the financial muscle to distribute it nationally and did a deal with Gallo Records. Within seven months of release, 43,000 copies had been sold in South Africa.
Music 1974–1975 South Africa-wide
Source: John Edwin Mason, "Mannenberg": Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem, African Studies Quarterly 9(4), 2007 · As-Shams / The Sun Records: About
Did you know?
Mason breaks the tune into familiar local ingredients: a marabi groove, a beat close to ticky-draai or a lazy ghoema, saxophones with a langarm sound, and a jazz aesthetic holding it together.
Music 1974 Cape Town
Source: John Edwin Mason, "Mannenberg": Notes on the Making of an Icon and Anthem, African Studies Quarterly 9(4), 2007 · Denis-Constant Martin, Sounding the Cape: Music, Identity and Politics in South Africa (African Minds, 2013)
Did you know?
Mason notes that the melody strongly resembles "Jackpot", recorded by the saxophonist Zacks Nkosi around 1960, and reports that the Sunday Times wrote in 2006 that Nkosi and his son believed "Mannenberg" was taken from it. Mason himself rejects the copy claim.
Music 1960–2006 Accounts differ South Africa-wide
The brief, every two weeks
A free email every two weeks with safety updates, dam levels, rainfall and what's on.
Includes a free member account to save favourite guides and join the discussion.