When one thinks of music made in Limpopo, it is easy to start and end with the guitar maestro George Maluleke.
Of course, there are many talented people who hail from the province, but Maluleke has probably been making music for the longest. So if you are Godfrey Malianga, from Limpopo, Maluleke’s kingdom, and dream of being in music, then you are in for a lot of trials and tribulations.
But Malianga’s debut CD, Nwananga, is testament to what hard work can do. From nothing the man has built his brand, wrote all his songs and produced an album that is good enough to share shelf space with any seasoned gospel musician.
“I am always writing songs and filing them in this big folder at home,” Maluleke said.
It is from this file that he pulled out a few favourite songs and came up with Nwananga, which was recorded and engineered at Mixmaster Studios in Melville.
Nwananga is Venda for “my child” and Malianga explained why the title was the best one for the project.
“This album is targeting the youth,” he said.
“Growing up, we were beaten into going to church and it did many of us some good, but the youngsters of today are not getting the same treatment. They do not go to church and instead, come the weekend, they are sending SMSes to each other about which club to go to,” he said.
Feeling that churches were not doing enough when it came to calling young people to worship, Malianga took it upon himself to go into the world and perhaps be the pied piper leading the young back to God.
“Churches are not sending enough messages to bring in the young people to Christianity. Instead, they focus on specific targets and sometimes, if you are not from a church-going family, you are left behind,” he said.
Like a superhero, Malianga has a day job and the music thing kicks in after hours and at the weekend. He is employed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development as an agricultural officer.
“They know what I do at work because I am always noisy there. I am very musical and music is everywhere I am,” he said.
Had it not been for the people who heard him sing in church, or those who had heard some of his compo- sitions, chances are Malianga would not have realised his dream.
“People always ask me why I never took my talents to the next level. I come up with something new every day so I have had a lot of songs just sitting there in my file. In the end I decided to give it a go and so far everything is looking good,” he said.
The man is planning a nationwide tour, so look out for him in your area soon.
He also said all the songs on his album have accompanying videos, a feat not even inter- national singers usually achieve.
In the near future, when he is at the stage where he is successful enough, Malianga hopes to work with established singers such as Solly Mahlangu.
“For now I am just working hard to make sure the music speaks for itself. You don’t want to walk up to someone and have to explain what you do,” he said.
• Nwananga is in music stores nationwide.