No Way and No First

Nowayilethi Mbizweni
14 x 11 inches, oil on canvas, 2020

The first painting of 2020 is of Nowayilethi Mbizweni. This is my third painting of her and together they make an interesting triptych. The recording in (last year's) top 100 is again from Dargie's film Umngqokolo: Thembu Xhosa, Overtone Singing 1985-1998. On the particular section in the top 100 she's not performing solo or as a duet like she was in a previous top 100 but fronts the Ngqoko group seen in the movie. The group consists of about fifteen singers, mostly women but a few men are included too. Nowayilethi sits in front next to (her sister perhaps) Nofirst Mbizweni. The rest of the group are standing behind them. The term 'umngqolo' refers to the type of throat singing Mbizweni is known for and I now learned how to properly pronounce it with the Xhosa clicking sound included.

Nowayilethi

Nowayilethi Mbizweni
9 x 12 inches, oil on canvas, 2018

There's a ton of new paintings that I still need to upload here. I start with perhaps the best of the bunch. The painting is the second this year of Nowayilethi Mbizweni. Mbizweni is for ethnomusicologists kind of what the discovery of ancient cave paintings in Sulawesi was for prehistoric art history. Like the Sulawesi paintings the discovery of throat singing in South Africa proved that traditons are often much more universal than was presumed. Throat singing was always thought to belong to certain cultures from Siberia and neighboring countries. In 1985 Dr. Dave Darvie discovered a tradition of throat singing among the Xhosa in South Africa. He filmed and recorded a group of women on location, most notably Nowayilethi Mbizweni. I posted a film made by Darvie in a separate post. The film was shot in South Africa in 1985 and 1996.

Nowayilethi Mbizwena

Nowayilethi Mbizweni
13 x 7.5 inches, oil on wood, 2018

Until 1980 the world of ethnomusicology did not know that a throat singing tradition existed on the southern hemisphere. The traditions of throat singing in regions close to arctic circle had been well examined but it wasn't until Prof. Dr. Dave Dargie "discovered' a similar tradition among the Xhosa of South Africa that throat singing was found any further south than Mongolia. Dr. Darvie recorded and filmed Nowayilethi Mbizweni demonstrating the vocal techniques of the Xhosa, solo, in duets, a trio, as well as in larger groups. Throat singing among the Xhosa is known as Umngqokolo and utilizes, like the tradition of the Siberians, three variations of 'overtone' resonating vocal chambers. Dr. Dargie compiled some of his material on film into Umngqokolo: Thembu Xhosa, Overtone Singing 1985-1998 which can be viewed on YouTube. The world "Umngqokolo" is incredibly hard to pronounce for non-Xhosa speakers as it contains the "click" sound, characteristic of Xhosa language and popularized by the singer Miriam Makeba. I am using here the spelling Nowayilethi as used by Mark C. van Tongeren in Overtone Singing:Physics and Metaphysics in East and West. [Fusica, Amsterdam, 2002] Dr. Dave Dargie adds an X to the name: Nowxayilethi. You would think Dargie's spelling is the right one but Nowxayilethi does not result in any hits on Google while Nowayilethi is not a problem. It makes sense that the English "no-way" is embedded in her name as her two main collaborators (and the only other singers named in the documentary) are named Nosomething Mbizweni and Nofirst Lungisa.