THESIS ZA
We are Thesis ZA. You might be wondering why the name Thesis. Let us explain: a few years ago, we sat down and started brainstorming ideas for our duo's name. Many cliche ideas of womanhood were thown around and needless to say none of them felt authentic. One day Ayanda, 1 half of the duo thought up the word Thesis. This represented - and still represents - experiences, thought, observation, research and learned lessons of a subject, life experience, discipline or piece of work. And there it was, an accurate representation of what we felt our was - the amalgamation of all of these things into song, into music as a body of work; and thus Thesis ZA.
Our music is written - quite deliberately- in isiXhosa, a South African language and it tells stories of love, loss, joy, hope, societal ills and sometimes - the fun of life. All through one (of many) South African perspectives. We hope you enjoy our music :)
No submissions for Beyond Music Project Volume 4.
No submissions for Beyond Music Project Volume 3.
No submissions for Beyond Music Project Volume 2.
The theme of the song is love. The main song idea was proposed by Thesis Za. We decided to mix English and French with Xhosa a local South African language. This mixture brought a particular colour to the song. This song describes the happiness that we have for our first love. We want it to last forever. Love is a feeling so beautiful and strong that it transcends the difficult realities of a daily life.
Our collaboration tells the story of a woman who feels empowered by her own strength and abandons the shame others try to put on her. We have blended the sounds of contemporary Xhosa music with a mystical instrumental and electronic accompaniment. We hope others will feel pride in themselves and find the strength to walk with such purpose too.
This song was inspired by the beautiful work of South African feminist author Dr Pumla Gqola, whose book 'A Renegade Called Simphiwe' unravels the story of award winning South African musician & activist. When we imagined the song - we thought of no better collaborator than African Multi-Instrumentalist Sky Dladla who captured our message beautifully with the drums & pipe. A mix of South African jazz, Xhosa lyrics & vocals as well as Southern African instruments.
Collaborating with the group Thesis Za was a real pleasure but it was also a real challenge to collaborate without ever meeting. We had to coordinate our studio sessions in order to share each part we were to record and check for the harmony of the song. I am really proud of the result. This blend of Cameroonian and South African culture on a song, it's amazing how it looks like we are singing in the same language and yet it is two different African languages, with these few words in English that come and embellish it all.