Mazwai’s plan to celebrate Africa’s cultural legacy

AS SHE nears two major milestones, her 50th birthday and 30 years in music, celebrated musician Thandiswa Mazwai is transforming reflection into purposeful action.

- ANITA NKONKI

Mazwai shares thrilling details about her inaugural Sankofa Heritage Festival, a cultural gathering celebrating memory, African heritage, and collective restoration, set for Saturday, February 28, at Carnival City.

She tells the Saturday Star that Sankofa is “both deeply personal and expansively communal.”

“I'm not getting any younger, and I wanted to create a space that would in some way house my legacy,” she says.

Long known for weaving history, activism, and spirituality into her work, she describes the festival as another extension of her passion for “memory, heritage, and archive” and a way to open doors for other cultural workers.

Though this is its first edition, Mazwai speaks of Sankofa as a living, growing idea, one she is excited to nurture. The festival arrives at a moment of personal reckoning and celebration.