In most cases, when we see celebrities at the top of their game, we never associate that success with a township upbringing. In fact, some of them do not like looking back on their past because the townships are generally looked down on.
But Mi Kasi Su Kasi intends to show you another side to what they call the ’hood when we see the success stories of those who came out of the kasi. According to the host of the show, Kabelo KB, several lessons can be learnt from each episode.
“The setting of the show is the township. We go across the country, looking at how many great South Africans grew up in the townships. For instance, we go to Alexandra, which was one of the first townships in the country. In the first episode we have footage of Nelson Mandela addressing the people when he was freed. So the area has that whole heritage thing going on and there are a lot of people who have come out of Alex. For example, we have Flabba who passed away earlier this year. He was the godfather of rap in Alex so we had (rapper and producer) Sean Pages as our tour guide,” he said.
In each episode a celebrity travels with the Mi Kasi Su Kasi team to demystify some of the misconceptions people might have about the townships.
“A tour guide on the show is basically someone famous who shows us the neighbourhood they grew up in. So we are just co-stars in every episode and the star is the township we feature. It’s all about teaching South Africans about the beauty of life in the townships. We also had L-Tido show us his township roots. We went to Eldorado and Slim showed us around. We went to the Vaal where Rorisang from Muzart also showed us around. In KZN, we had Zakwe and Pearl Thusi show us their respective homes. In Pretoria, we had DJ Spoko take us to Atteridgeville,” explained the presenter.
For Kabelo KB, this gig is more of a learning curve because once celebrities earn big money, they move out of the townships and people never learn about their past.
“It’s a cool job because you get to learn about our celebrities’ humble beginnings. I think there is a huge perception that nothing good comes out of the townships so it helps a great deal to have these successful celebrities take us back to where their dreams were born,” he said.
“The other thing that people who have never stayed in the townships see is that there is a sense of community. They have a lot of centres where people meet for recreational purposes so everyone knows everyone else. It’s not the same in suburbia.
“People in places like Sandton generally mind their own business and don’t have that communal connection. I grew up in the suburbs and we had no community centres to learn any skills,” he added.
Thanks to South Africa’s colourful history, the townships were formed under apartheid and there are many intriguing stories that come out of that.
“Townships by the very nature of their formation have a story on how they came to be. You don’t have the same with suburbs. And I like that,” said Kabelo KB.
• Mi Kasi Su Kasi, Mondays, 6pm, SABC1.