By Lucky Masilela
Our Heritage Day this year highlighted that we can easily assert our African identity with the help of technology.
South Africa boasts several global brands, like former President Nelson Mandela, songstress Miriam Makeba and Jonathan Clegg.
Now, our undisputed young cultural ambassador from Limpopo is Kgaogelo Moagi. Known as Master KG, his collaboration with Nomcebo Zikode has the world overwhelmingly embracing the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge. Everybody is posting videos of themselves dancing to Master KG’s hit song, Jerusalema.
From Janet Jackson to Portuguese football idol Ronaldo to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize, who knows the next big name to jump on the bandwagon and who can tell how much we could sell South African products to the world and reignite our economy, with the help of the Internet?
Minister Mkhize, of course, and his Health Ministry team posted their dance video carrying incredibly positive messages about COVID-19. They answered the call by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his September 16 th speech announcing the move to Level 1.
“There can be no better way to celebrate our South Africans than joining the global phenomenon…and that is the Jerusalema Dance Challenge. I urge all of you to take up this challenge on Heritage Day”, he said.
President Ramaphosa knows how to aptly use popular South African songs to make his national addresses resonate with the majority. He did so successfully with Hugh Masekela’s Thuma Mina in his first State of the Nation Address on February 16 in 2018.
The current success of Jerusalema is hard to ignore. It is an illustration of what digital presence can do for just about anybody – irrespective of where they are or their previous accomplishments.
The song has been streamed more than any other on Shazam – way ahead of hits by bigger and older international artists like Chris Brown and Drake. It is top of the streaming charts in South Africa on a larger streaming service, Spotify, and it has raked in hundreds of millions of You Tube video hits and over 320 million impressions on TikTok.
Twenty-four year old Master KG has been at this digital age business since the age of 13 when his uncle gave him a laptop. That decision by an adult demonstrates the vital importance of introducing our children to the Internet at an early age. It also highlights the critical value of giving every African access to affordable and reliable Internet connectivity.
Our mandate at ZACR is to do exactly that. As the registry in charge of different .ZA second level domains, such as co.za, net.za, org.za and web.za we are proud of having topped 1,000,000 domain name registrations.
We can only push for more to enable ambassadors like Master KG, his fellow Limpopo DJ King Monada, Sho Majozi and many other custodians of our heritage to take the story of South Africa and the entire continent to the rest of the world.
A song can unite not only a nation, but the entire human race.
This break-out success of Jerusalema shows that once we establish our presence on the web there is no stopping how high our flag can fly. Today, there hundreds of millions of people globally – in these depressing times of Covid-19 who rely on a South African youngster to cheer themselves up.
Happy Heritage Month to all South Africans and the people of the world. To Master KG, thank you!
Lucky Masilela is the CEO of ZACR.
The Star