Future Africa Wants to Make Traditional Sounds Cool Again

This new South African group blends influences from maskandi and mbhaqanga with pop & hip-hop.

South African artist Aewon Wolf has lived many lives—he's a member of The Wolf Pack, a singer, rapper and director, among other things. He calls himself an all-arounder. On his debut album, Mural, released in 2017, Aewon introduced himself as a versatile artist who mixes various genres. He has collaborated with a diverse array of artists such as Khuli Chana, Sketchy Bongo, Shekhinah, Mashayabhuqe KaMamba, among others.

He recently expanded his scope when he became part of a crew called Future Africa, which consists of members Sibu Nzuza (vocalist, poet, rapper and guitarist), Mnqobi Yazo (vocalist, producer and guitarist) and S'phephelo Bulunga (percussionist, producer and rapper), who are all based in Durban.

Future Africa makes music Afrocentric music with touches of hip-hop and pop. Their first song "Ntombi Endala" is a great place to start to get a taste of their sound, which has traces of maskandi and mbhaqanga. "Potoza Game" by Sibu Nzuza and Aewon Wolf featuring Simmy Sims will also give you further understanding of their music.

A few weeks ago, the group performed their first Johannesburg show at AGOG Gallery. The quartet gave an energetic performance that involved the Zulu dance ukusina and live percussion, which is a great departure from your regular hip-hop act. 

Aewon Wolf, at the beginning of their set, screamed, "Being African is cool," which is the group's unofficial mantra. They reiterate it in interviews, including the one we did with them, in which we spoke to them about how Future Africa was formed, making Afrocentric pop music, their relationship with hip-hop, being based in Durban, and a whole lot more.

Read our conversation below:

What is Future Africa?

Aewon: Future Africa, first of all, is not a band. It's a brand encompassing a lot more things than just music. It's basically an idea or philosophy that's pushed within the brand, of trying to make African culture more relevant in today's world. And more accepted by the youth because we are still sleeping on our own cultures as Africans, let alone the world. So we tryna push that agenda and take it to the world.

How did you guys form this brand?

Aewon: It's something we've been developing with the homies here for a while. First of all, we wanted to make a band, to make music that was different. We, artists who make music that's culturally relevant, feel slept on in South Africa. We started off with that idea, and I decided as well that this thing is bigger than just a band, so that's why I developed it to the point where it's a brand.

Is the band the first project under the Future Africa brand?

Aewon: Yes

When did you guys starting recording and performing together?

Sibu: The recording started with me and Mnqobi as Sibu Nzuza and Mnqobi Yazo. We started early March. Everything took off from there.

And all of you guys are solo artists…

Aewon: Yes, the reason it's a brand is because everybody under Future Africa does their own thing as well. So we are a collective.

Aewon, you've always been a versatile artist. Sibu, I've always known you as a rapper, and I've seen you morph over the years into what you are now. What inspired this change?

Sibu: With me, when I started rapping under the alias Qricha, I felt like hip-hop took from me more than it gave. So basically, it wasn't really a change that I did. I just took it to the basics. If it was a change, I would have given myself another alias, but I went back to the name my mom gave me. I'm still part of hip-hop as a culture, but as a genre, there's not much I can do for hip-hop anymore. I feel like my African roots need more people like me in it, more than hip-hop needs me. As you noticed, my music has grown quite traditional. With me, I felt the hip-hop thing was just another phase when I was finding myself as an artist, but this, this is home.

With the rest of you, did you go through the same things?

Mnqobi: It's a bit complicated because I'm an actor, writer and director, alongside being a musician. I've been doing African music, that's how I met Aewon Wolf. I've been doing African music until I met Sibu, and I told him I respect your talent and I wish you could do something like an EP. And then we recorded the first two songs. And Aewon Wolf, was like, bafethu, ningayishiyi kanjalo, let's win Grammys with this, and then he mentored us and became a member. Even the reason we are able to get gigs, it's because of him.

What I saw with us as Mnqobi Yazo and Sibu Nzuza, with Sphe playing his percussion, we formed powerful African musicians. And we speak about the things that people are scared to speak about nowadays. We are trying to send this message in a modern way so they can accept it.

Sibu: Sort of like tryna make this African feel sound cool because as young people ourselves, we will make that cool, and the kids will listen because we bring some of our old fans with us—the ones we take from hip-hop, they're feeling the African sound now. That's also what Future Africa is about; we tryna make being African cool again.

Aewon: When I came across Mnqobi's music, he opened my eyes completely. I feel like I was always looking through a small hole, had an idea, but what I didn't understand was what it sounds like to hear African music that speaks to me in this day and age, and actually done by someone who's young. I realized that we are sleeping on our own music, just because we never heard it from someone who's like us. And that opened my eyes to a lot of things. I come from a hip-hop and pop background, I always never really caught on except for Tshepo Tsola from Sankomota, who's one of my favorite artists of all time.