Standard-Examiner staff?lbrady@standard.net?

T

he songs of the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo started in founder Joseph Shabalala’s dreams. ?

He imagined combining traditional African and mine workers’ ballads, and gospel, turning it into a tight-harmonied a cappella vocal style that hadn’t been heard in Africa. With work and country-changing diligence, he made the music become a reality.

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Albert Mazibuko has been a member of the vocal group, alongside Shabalala, since 1968.?

“It is over 41 years now,” said Mazibuko. “I never imagined being with a group so long. It was my dream come true to join the group. But to go for so long? It is something I think about when I wake up in the morning. It is wonderful.”?Ladysmith Black Mambazo comes to Ogden this weekend for a show at Peery’s Egyptian Theater. ?Mazibuko said the group had played Utah before, though not this venue. ?”But we love the old theaters,” he said. “I am sure it will be really fun.” ?As Shabalala envisioned, the singers mesh traditional Zulu music with gospel and the work songs that came out of the gold and diamond mines. Many of the works date back to the 1800s and the dawn of colonialism on the continent.?”We grew up seeing our fathers singing the songs,” said Mazibuko. “And then Joseph Shabalala, he had a vision for developing this kind of music. In 1964, he said, he had a dream about it every time he went to sleep.”?Shabalala left another band, one he’d founded in 1960, to try to realize his dream. ?”He came with his brother to me and one of my cousins,” said Mazibuko. “He told us that he had a new way of singing. We said, OK, we’d give it a try.”?

Diamonds?on their souls?

The group has made more than 50 albums that have inspired a nation and, eventually, the whole world. ?”When we started the group, people were very depressed and oppressed in South Africa. We need this kind of thing to cheer them up and make them strong,” said Mazibuko. “Fortunately, times are better, but we never stopped. Good things kept happening.”?In 1970, after singing to demonstrate to the police commissioner of their township just how important their message and their art form was, the group was granted papers to travel throughout South Africa. They took the papers from the police chief to the district magistrate to see if they could be the first black group to get such all-purpose travel papers. ?”He said, ‘I will give you permission to travel for two years.’ And that was a long time. Every time we were stopped, we relaxed and produced the letter. This was the first such permission in South Africa.”?There were still difficulties, such as the legal requirement within the apartheid system to keep the audiences racially segregated. ?”There were these two white couples who used to come see our shows,” said Mazibuko. “But that was illegal, and one time they were escorted out. We were very disappointed. ?”Another time, a white family hired us to play a wedding. But they had to hide us — had us come in the back door and perform in a tent.”?But everything changed as apartheid started to erode in the late 1980s. After the group was asked to appear on Paul Simon’s groundbreaking 1986 world-music album “Graceland,” Ladysmith Black Mambazo expanded its reach worldwide. ?It would not be many more years before their country’s top anti-apartheid activist, Nelson Mandela, was freed from prison and rose to the country’s top political office. ?

The greatest day?

In 1993, when Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, he took Ladysmith Black Mambazo along to perform in Oslo, Norway, to glory in the honor as well. ?”It is something I will never forget,” said Mazibuko. “A very important performance. We were the only group to perform at that ceremony. ?

“It was so emotional. These two leaders (Mandela and F.W. Willem de Klerk, who as South Africa’s president, freed Mandela from prison) that came all the way from South Africa to receive

this Peace Prize. To us, it meant our country would be a peaceful country.”?

At Peery’s ?

The musicians have recently produced a collection of songs of traditional Zulu music, in order to reach back to their roots, Mazibuko said. They pay tribute to Shaka Zulu, a 17th-century leader who united many of the warring tribes. The album is called “Ilembe: Honoring Shaka Zulu.”?Since “Graceland,” the group had spent a lot of time collaborating with other artists. This time, for the Shaka Zulu tribute, they wanted the album to be about and by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. ?”Shaka Zulu is a persona that, our fathers told us, when he left” — he died in an uprising — “he was striving to unite. We strive to do that with music.” ?They will be performing a number of songs from the album at the Peery’s show. ?”The very last number

we do, we invite people up onstage to dance with us. We have so much energy, so much enjoyment. This album was invigorating.”