Monthly Archives: March 2005

Silhouetted on stage against a slate gray backdrop, Sipokazi Luzipo' clear alto voice calls out into blackness. A taut hide stretched over a jembe provides drumming surface to accompany Luzipo as she chants and narrates Jikele Emaweni in Xhosa. Soon 24 other singers of Soweto Gospel Choir climb the stairs of the Ted Mann Concert Hall, at the University of Minnesota, transporting the audience into another world of color, movement and sound unlike the usual fare found under the red, white, and blue stars and stripes of the United States.