Singing sensation Yvonne Chaka Chaka was born on March 18, 1965 in Dobsonville, Soweto. As she celebrates her 50th birthday, she reflects on being in the music industry for 30 years and her role as a Unicef ambassador for the past decade.
To mark these milestones, Chaka Chaka will be performing at Gold Reef City’s The Lyric Theatre on March 28.
“In my work as a goodwill ambassador, I see a lot of hurtful things like children dying at a young age. So for me to celebrate 50 is not a given. It is actually a blessing and a privilege. So I am thanking God for my life as He gives the oxygen I breathe and He takes it away. I feel like it’s time for me to sit back and reflect,” said the singer, popularly known as the princess of Africa.
And reflect she did.
1965-1975
The toddler years
Born in the township of Soweto, Chaka Chaka was a typical, playful girl like many of her peers. She had no idea what she was going to become later in life.
“I started school aged 5 in 1970. I didn’t like waking up in the morning, but I got used to it and when I was 10, I was now a big girl and getting clever,” she recalled.
“My father died when I was 11 years old and life was tough then. My two sisters and I were left with only my mother and and, to make matters worse, the apartheid government took away our house. They took it from my mother because she was a black single woman and was not supposed to have a house. I ended up growing up in the madam’s backyard. My mother’s “madam” was wonderful because she fought tooth and nail for us to get our house back and she did,” she explained.
1976-1985
The political reality
Like anyone who was in Soweto in the ’70s, the memories of apartheid are still clear in their minds and Chaka Chaka is no exception.
“Come 1976, the uprisings took place and I remember them very well. I recall that we had never seen the Hippos (pre-1994 armoured vehicles). There was smoke everywhere and we were coughing and wetting ourselves. We did not know what was going on. They were pouring water on us and we were running all over. All I could see were white soldiers with guns saying: ‘kom k****rs’ and they could get away with it because we were just kids. But they never shot us. Yet the older brothers and sisters were fighting fiercely. And they were being shot,” she recalled.
There was a need for a change of scenery and her mother came up with a plan.
“I left and went to Pretoria with my mother. The unrest in Soweto was becoming worse by the day and Pretoria was a safer destination. I stayed there for two years and then returned to Soweto to complete my high school studies. At 18, I completed my matric and at 19, I started singing,” she said.
1985 onwards
“I started singing by chance. My mother wanted me to study law. I don’t know how she wanted me to do it when there was no money for me to go to university. I had fallen pregnant when I was in matric and that was a sad story, and a blessing in disguise. I wrote my matric exams while I was pregnant and I had Themba the following year.
“My mother was very upset, but when I look back I realise that my pregnancy was a blessing in disguise because had I not fallen pregnant, I would have probably gone to university and none of this would have happened.
“I was a disgrace to my mother and the family for falling pregnant, as the youngest child, and I sang as a way of trying to show that I had faltered, but I wanted to right my wrongs. I was only 19 and could not sign my contract, only she could sign it. You had to be 21 in South Africa to sign independently.”
The desire to learn
Very few musicians take the steps to back up their careers with an education. They rather live off fame, but Chaka Chaka was cut from a different cloth.
“I tried to study law to please my mother, but it didn’t happen. I failed Afrikaans three times. I also failed history and mercantile law, then I told her that it wasn’t going to happen. I was quite fortunate because I passed matric and met a woman called Fiona Fraser who was helping me with public speaking and suggested that I enroll with the Trinity College Of London. I studied there and it was difficult because I had to write assignments and do research. The tests were one-on-one with invigilators who came all the way from the UK. It was hard, but I am glad I did it and passed,” she said.
This led her to do more in the educational sphere.
“When I went to Unisa to do my certificate, I told my husband I wanted to study a diploma because anything more than that would take me forever to complete with everything going on around me,” she said.
Longevity secrets
Not everyone who started singing in the mid-’80s is still in the music business. They are either dead or have just lost their touch, yet Chaka Chaka keeps on going.
“I look back and think that if I were to do it all over again, then I would. Thanks to people like Phil Hollis, who believed in me when everyone thought I was not going to go far in the music business. Phil unleashed the potential he saw in me and had the likes of Herbert Xulu and Chicco Twala write songs for me,” she said.
For Chaka Chaka, taking matters into her own hands and having to channel her music into subjects that mattered to her gave her more satisfaction than merely producing radio hits.
“I started to write songs that mattered, like I Cry For Freedom and Africa Is Crying For Freedom. I had started travelling and my first trip outside of South Africa was to Zimbabwe in 1986 and then a lot of African countries followed.
“I needed the African continent to know me and my music better and I needed to know all my people well, too. I guess that is why they now call me the princess of Africa,” she explained.
“I have managed to do so many things I have always wanted to do, through my music. Like, I have been to the White House for the Presidential Malaria Initiative and all over the world under Unicef obligations and responsibilities.
“I feel that I should use the music to get me into places where I can help the very people who have supported my music over the years.
“I get baffled when we as musicians have bodyguards to prevent us from being among the people who made us who we are today,” she continued.
March 28 celebrations
TEN days after her 50th birthday, Chaka Chaka and some of her peers will perform a memorable show at The Lyric Theatre that will celebrate her life, music and humanitarian work.
“I am bringing a few friends to the Celebrate showcase. It is a nostalgic show. I have invited PJ Powers, Marc Alex, Lina, who they used to call Ebony, and Phumi Maduna, among others. I don’t want to forget where I came from. I also have young artists like Tshidi from Malaika joining me. There are a few other surprises in store,” she said.
Expect the classic Chaka Chaka hits including Umqombothi, I’m in Love With a DJ and Motherland.