School of Song

"So when did you start singing?" I ask Nonkululeko Khumalo in the basement café of St Andrews and St George’s church. She’s sitting across the table from me, neat but relaxed in the bright green uniform of Dloko High School, a red ribbon tying back her hair. Without missing a beat she cracks a grin. "I started singing the moment my mother gave birth to me."

About to go on stage in less than an hour’s time, you might think the 20-year-old business student from Umlazi in South Africa would be displaying at least some hint of nerves. But Nonkululeko is sparky, full of quick, considered answers, and along with fellow student choristers Mxolisi Chiliza,19, and Phumlani Ntetha,19, animated with the special energy and liveliness that the Fringe seems to mystically bestow upon the young.

Dloko High School Choir however have come from further afield than most to perform. As part of a collaboration between Scottish and South African schools, the group have travelled from South Africa’s second largest township (after Soweto), south west of the city of Durban. When I ask Mxolisi to tell me about Umlazi his response is, "It is a poor, poor community." Nonkululeko quickly interjects, "We're poor but we don't want to dig into that. Baba Alex coming from here to Umlazi was the biggest change because he empowered us. Scotland is so different; we don't meet these types of people – even the old people respect us and this makes me feel glad."

The Alex she’s talking about is Alex Wallace, former Head of Edinburgh’s James Gillespie’s High School who spearheaded the invitation to the choir via the Iris Initiative, a charity dedicated to stimulating debate about societal values. Fiercely proud of the group’s talent, Wallace is also keen to emphasise the circumstances in which Dloko High School operates, pointing out in his show introduction that he has the choir’s permission to talk about the poverty and high crime rates in their locality. The group have been singing every day at St Andrews and St Georges, and from 12 to 14 August will perform the show Township Voices at the Assembly Rooms. Part of their aim while here is to raise money to plough back into projects that will help improve their school and surrounding community. So far past initiatives have created a school soup kitchen, a crisis centre for women, and a house for a gogo (a grandmother) who looks after 19 adopted babies.

This is the first time the students have left their country, and since arriving in the UK they have had to adapt quickly to a flurry of media attention. Tomorrow they’re off to Banchory for a last minute gig, and just a few hours ago the BBC recorded them singing onboard one of the new Edinburgh trams – "It’s ok," says Nonkululeko, "We sing on trains back home, so the motion was no problem."

And that’s really what the spirit of the choir all boils down to: an unshakeable commitment to creating music. While chatting to the students their absolute love for what they do is abundantly clear. They practice four times a week, for two to two-and-a-half hours at a time, on top of their school studies. Music teacher Musa Khuzwayo operates a democratic policy when allocating the songs, allowing the children to choose, conduct and even compose their own.

The finale was written by Sandile Macquaba, a 20-year-old with a gorgeous soft baritone. Called 'Thatha Uqobo', it translates from Zulu as ‘You can take me as I am,’ and is a piece the three singers I’m chatting to go crazy over when I ask them what their favourite song is.

"You know the Zulu people, we believe in God," says Mxolisi. "This song says to God, 'I don't have anything to give you'."

Nonkululeko takes over. "Even if you're so poor that you can't eat anything today, we're going to go down on our knees and say, 'Please God take me as I am, because I have nothing to give you; you can only take me'. Even if you know you're not going to eat tomorrow."

That the songs come from places in the heart reserved for the deepest faith shows in their performance. When 20-year-old Mlekilile Radebe takes the lead in the penultimate piece the power of his voice—rich with vibrato on the low notes, blasting the high ones—is astonishing. Dropping to his knees, releasing his arms out he gives himself to the music with complete open-heartedness. The song is called 'Cover Me Lord'. By the end I was in floods of tears.

Throughout the hour long afternoon concert I have to keep reminding myself that the students have not been handpicked from a talent pool across the country, nor streamed from auditions throughout their locality, but are from one individual school. And while many of the tunes are soul-soaring melodies, the like of which we’re used to hearing from the Soweto Gospel Choir, the Dloko schoolchildren do not shy away from grave subject matter either.

"There is a song we sing that was used in Soweto by the people who were boycotting," says Nonkululeko. She explains to me the background of the 1976 Soweto uprising when high school students protested at the enforced teaching of Afrikaans in schools. An estimated 700 people died taking part. "They were forced to do every subject in Afrikaans, and so they started to boycott and fight. When we sing this song it’s so full of emotion that I even cry. The emotion comes back and all the images. They died for this."

"That's why now we're able to learn our languages, Zulu and English," says Mxolisi.

The unimaginable oppression faced by the choir members’ parents and older relatives may go some way to explaining the fierce protection with which the students talk about their education. "Music is going to be my career," says Nonkululeko, "after I've done what I'm doing in college. I'm studying Business Management, but when that's done I'm going to do music. I want to have a business background first, and then I can do music."

And so, once again it comes back to the music. As Choir Master Musa says, "we can bring music, and music brings joy and happiness." And that is Dloko High School Choir’s gift to the Fringe.

The Dloko High School Choir's visit was facilitated and supported by the Jabulani Project. You can support the Jabulani Project online att jabulaniproject.wordpress.com/support-us/donate-2/