"We are not celebrities, this is servant-hood that we approach with humility."

South Africa’s rich affinity of gospel music remains one of our country’s most popular and precious totems of artistic expression. Demonstrating a phenomena between the complex suffusion of indigenous roots with colonial impositions; gospel music is a spiritual salve, and it traces a pathway throughout the last few hundred years of resilience, brilliance - oppression - and ultimately, triumph. 

Gospel’s defiance is precise in its articulation; retaining its indigenous and traditional roots, particularly so in the variance of Bantu lyricism and dissemination across attire, movement and so on - while assuming ideals and teachings, though brought through colonial and oppressive means, have become integral to spiritual life in the country. The religious and spiritual life of Black South Africans have remained undeterred by all that has attempted to disrupt it; instead, this spiritual life is a transmutation - making whole as it makes a-new - and gospel music, is a sonic and creative accomplishment of this resistance and reinterpretation. Gospel music is an original ownership and expression of agency, wholly belonging to the spiritual life of Black South Africans through the horrors of colonialism, apartheid and into today, in the democratic age of the country.  

One such institution of Gospel music is the internationally acclaimed, ‘Amadodana Ase Wesile’; a choir that originated in 1985 through the collaborative efforts of Thomas Mokhathi from the Pimville congregation in Soweto and Mongezi Nhose, members of the Methodist Church’s Young Men’s Guild (YMG) in Gauteng’s Central District. Their vision extended beyond their local community, as they enlisted men from Zola, Meadowlands, Dobsonville, and Vosloorus in the East Rand to establish the choir. As one of the best-selling musical ensembles in South Africa, Amadodana Ase Wesile won First Prize  at the International Gospel Music Festival in Istanbul, Turkey in 2000. 

The name, ‘Amadodana Ase Wesile’, translates from isiZulu to mean ‘Sons of the Wesselites,’ signifying their connection to the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Notably, their inaugural album, "Nkosi Sihlangene," is revered as a visionary contribution in the realm of South African gospel music.

Colour has always been used as a method for encoding significant, symbolic meaning within Bantu, spiritual traditions. In the context of attire, and as a manifestation of a kind of sartorial consciousness, the original uniform for Amadodana Ase Wesile was: a black jacket, white shirt, black trousers with black shoes and a purple sash. The uniform was later changed to include a red waistcoat, replacing the purple sash, with each chosen colour serving as an encoded imprint of the group’s mission. The red waistcoat signified salvation through the blood of Jesus, while the black tie symbolised the darkness of the crucifixion and the three hours of darkness at Calvary. The five buttons of the waistcoat represented the five wounds of Jesus on the cross, and the white shirt put forth the light of the resurrection. Finally, their badge symbolised Christ’s crown of thorns; emblematic of his suffering, kingship and sacrifice for humanity.  

Theme III is a celebration of the ensemble’s original members and their impact, composed of fourteen male singers: Thomas Mokhathi, Fana Sthole, Mandla Mabaso, Phillip Mtshali, Thato Rantimo, Samson Mthembu, Victor Mbangi, Mxolisi Makhawula, Tshidiso Ntabeni, Banele Gcobo, Nathaniel Dilata, and Freeman Khatshwa, Bafana Ramouti, Tius Mautshotlo, Siphiwo Mxhosa. In addition, this aspect of Provenance Part II is a love-letter to Lukhanyo Mdingi’s grandmother; the woman who embodies Lukhanyo’s roots and reasons for his life’s work. For Theme III’s ‘Music’ enclave, we chose simple, yet powerful material heirlooms of Amadodana Ase Wesile; An Image, An Album, A Recording Device (from the 80s and used to record their hymn) and An Instrument - ‘ibeat’ - with each of these elements serving to deepen our understanding of their work and process. The sweeping,stark red room emphasises a sacred chamber in which to view these heirlooms; with the colour itself making specific reference to the essence of the choir’s servitude; salvation through the blood of Jesus, understood by Christians to be the greatest act of love ever conceived.

Experienced through the unique soundscape of KRAMER Speakers; The deep, bartone reverberation of Amadodana Ase Wesile’s song ‘Siyakudumisa Thixo’ (We praise you, God) has spread across many iterations of Methodist churches in South Africa; signifying a common unity in the pursuit of praise, weaving together the many roots of South Africa’s spiritual assertion. The legacy of Amadodana Ase Wesile and ‘Siyakudumisa Thixo’ are crowning glories in the South African record; of spirit, sound, salvation and sanctity.