Abdullah Ibrahim

In the Cape Town music graph

• The record says Mannenberg. The township says Manenberg. The accounts we checked do not explain the extra n. 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.
• One of Cape Town's best-known jazz tunes was cut in a Cape Town session in June 1974. 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.
• Basil Coetzee was born in District Six and carried the name of the place he was moved to. 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.
• By one published account, Rashid Vally sold 5,000 copies in a week by playing the record on his shop loudspeakers. 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.

Abdullah Ibrahim in the music graph