Over 65 Years Later, Ladysmith Black Mambazo Continues Its “Impossible Dream”
The legendary Ladysmith Black Mambazo is gracing the stage at Whitaker Center!
This year marks 65 years since Joseph Shabala founded Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The group became a worldwide phenomenon, winning more GRAMMY Awards (5), and receiving more GRAMMY Award nominations (19), than any World Music group in the history of recorded music.
The group sings a traditional music style called isicathamiya (Is-Cot-A-Mee-Ya), which developed in the mines of South Africa.
During the South African Apartheid, the musicians followed a path of peaceful protest through songs of hope and love. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, in 1990, he said that Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s music was a powerful message of peace that he listened to while in jail, and when Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1993, he asked the group to join him at the ceremony.
It was Mandela who called Ladysmith Black Mambazo “South Africa’s Cultural Ambassadors to the World.”
March 24, 2026
In the mid-1980s, American singer/songwriter Paul Simon famously visited South Africa and incorporated the group’s rich harmonies into his renowned Graceland album — a landmark recording considered seminal in introducing World Music to mainstream audiences.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo is now led by three of Joseph’s sons: Thulani Shabalala, Sibongiseni Shabalala and Thamsanqa Shabalala, and also features the talents of Msizi Shabalala, Albert Mazibuko, Abednego Mazibuko, Mfanafuthi Dlamini, Pius Shezi and Sabelo Mthembu.