thandiswa mazwai's sankofa festival honours heritage through music

On Saturday, 28 February in Johannesburg, the Sankofa Heritage Festival came to the Big Top Arena at Carnival City to celebrate Thandiswa Mazwai’s 50th birthday and three decades in music. The festival marked the beginning of what promises to become an annual African cultural celebration, devoted to honouring heritage through music. The inaugural edition was co-headlined by Thandiswa (with special guests), GRAMMY-nominated artist Somi from Rwanda/Uganda, and Msaki.

The evening kicked off with Vuyo Viwe, the Opening Act Competition winner selected from 250 applicants from across South Africa. The competition spotlighted emerging artists rooted in traditional and indigenous musical forms. Vuyo Viwe, a 25-year-old flautist, composer, and vocalist based in Johannesburg, blends South African traditional song forms with orchestral folk and alternative vocal approaches, combining electronic textures with classical instrumentation. Drawing on the raw sensibilities of uHadi, Ngoma time signatures, and intentional dissonance, Vuyo Viwe represents a bold new voice grounded in heritage while pushing sonic boundaries.

“I am beyond honoured to share a stage with one of my earliest and most formidable sonic heroes,” says Vuyo. “This is honestly a dream realised, and proof that African music is here to stay. I am most thankful and excited to do what I was born to do!”

Thandiswa’s set gathered collaborators and elders whose presence traced a living lineage. Award-winning pianist and composer Thandi Ntuli brought a genre-fluid language shaped by jazz and spiritual traditions. Guitarist Madala Kunene, long regarded as a custodian of Zulu musical knowledge, brought his signature style anchored in Zulu musical traditions and Jahseed, a core member of Bongo Maffin, returned to a shared origin point, invoking the kwaito movement that helped define a generation. The Sivuyile Traditional Dance Group introduced a kinetic memory through Xhosa dance, while DJ Kenzhero closed the evening with a survey of South African sound.

The evening’s co-headliners, Grammy-nominated artist Somi and acclaimed South African musician Msaki, both long-time collaborators and creative sisters of Mazwai, reinforced the festival’s pan-African vision.

“This festival aimed to uplift young musicians and introduce them to new audiences,” says Mazwai. “Thank you to everyone who entered the Opening Act Competition. We are so excited to be a part of all of your journeys. Also, a special thank you to our elder Madala Kunene for agreeing to share space with us.”

The Sankofa Heritage Festival is dedicated to preserving and celebrating indigenous African music. Each performance echoed ancestral rhythms and bridged the past, present, and future of African sound. For Manor’s ongoing exploration of remembering, the festival offered a clear proposition that memory is kept and performed forward. In a season concerned with future nostalgia, last night demonstrated how sound can carry the present into tomorrow without losing its origin.