An Ode to Spirit! By Kwesta

From the church to the club, spinning cars, ukurola amadice and Isangoma esiphete ishoba. Kwesta dropped his song Spirit in 2017 which features the American rapper, Wale. This blog post is going to be dissecting the song and its visuals.

The song was produced by Makwa who also produced Kwesta's Ngud. The song samples These Tears by Spirit Chasers. The house song is slowed down to create the sound of New-Age Kwaito which is a fusion of Hip-Hop and Kwaito. At the beginning of the song, we hear "Zimb indaba" which is a line sampled from the legendary Brenda Fassie's song Kuyoze Kuyovalwa. The term Spirit is a township term which alludes to a fist pump that conveys a message on never giving up, "Ungaphel' umoya saan, ntwana yam Spirit."

The beginning of the music video starts off with a scene which showcases a normal day and regular people just walking by, not making eye contact with each other. This foreshadows the normality behind the everyday struggles that Black South Africans face, which shouldn't be viewed as normal. These people pass a wall that is filled with writing and faces of Black heroes such as Nelson Mandela. The scene then transitions to Kwesta where we see the back of his soccer t-shirt which has Ngobese number 11. Ngobese is a famous soccer player from back in the day, he came from the same township that Kwesta grew up in which is Katlehong. This scene can be seen as Kwesta paying respect to the ghetto hero. We then see a man being baptized, children throwing water at each other from buckets, a pastor praying on his knees, a Rastafarian man smoking a blunt and a chicken being slaughtered. All these elements are references to African spirituality and history. The baptism and children throwing water can be viewed as spiritual and religious cleansing. Water is not only seen as a cleansing element but it's also a reference to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and how some African slaves chose to end their lives by jumping off the ships to spare themselves of the misery. A chicken is also an animal that is sometimes slaughtered for cleansing purposes.

Kwesta is then seen at his grandmother's house where he grew up. The sofa is covered in plastic wrap and we see porcelain puppies which were a township household decoration staple back in the days. Kwesta is then seen walking outside of his grandmother's house with fans screaming for him which symbolises he has also become a ghetto hero for the youth of today, just as Ngobese was a ghetto hero for his youth. We see a young mother holding her baby and mirroring a famous South African picture called African Madonna and Child which is ubiquitous across rural and urban Black centres. Kwesta and Wale are then seen performing for a massive crowd in the township which symbolizes how Kwesta stays true to his roots, he could have easily taken Wale to Sandton but he chose to bring him to his township and put him on a New-Age Kwaito song. Kwesta has also done this with his other international collaborations which include Rick Ross and Rich Homie Quan. "Kanti awazi ziwa la lokshin Sthing-thing sase Sandton-I Inja ipheth' uWale egontshini"

From this point of the video, we start to see contrasting scenes. These scenes provide a contradicting binary between the old and young, saints and sinners and morally questionable and morally sound. We see an older woman dressed in her church uniform, she's part of a group of women who can be referred to as Omama Bomthandazo. Contradicting to that, young women are seen going to the club, drinking alcoholic spirits. The video also showcases a scene where church members are seen paying tithe and to that, a scene of men throwing money at pole dancers in a club follows. Isangoma is shown throwing bones for a reading which transmits to a scene of men throwing amadice in the hood. We also see Kwesta driving a sports car then we see Wale in a taxi.

The second half of the video uses fire and smoke as symbolism. A young Black man is seen with a burning tire around his neck which is a reference to necklacing. This method was used to kill people who were snitches, people who committed crimes and people who betrayed their people in township communities. This young man also has the Apartheid flag wrapped around him which is also on fire. Apartheid has had a long last effect which still negatively affects Black people till this day. The Apartheid flag was only banned in 2019. There's also a scene of a man on fire which has been claimed as a reference to Xenophobic attacks. Isangoma is seen burning imphepho, a young lady is smoking hookah in the club, there's a burning lantern, a man is smoking a blunt and there's smoke coming from the flames. This smoke is a poetic reference to the idea of experiencing the meditation of living in a township.

This song and video took Black consciousness to the top of the charts, Kwesta reflected our desperation, inspiration and aspirations. I could go on and on about this video but I think this post is already long enough. I'm going to leave you all with one last thing, "Ungaphel' umoya saan, ntwana yam Spirit." (I'm giving all of you virtual fist pumps).

Production team for Spirit

Director- Tebza

Executive producer- Gavin Joubert

Producer – Marc G Harrison

DP- Tom Revington

Art director – Gavin Skates

Editor – Andrew Traill