The joyful Soweto choir that even Nelson Mandela wanted to join

Choirmaster Vincent “Shimmy” Jiyane has a favourite memory from the many times the Soweto Gospel Choir performed for former South African president Nelson Mandela.

While waiting for the great man after winning their first Grammy award in 2006, they began singing one of his favourite songs, the celebratory Sesotho-language Hlonolofatsa. Then Mandela arrived and surprisingly told them to stop.

“Gospel gave us hope”: Vincent ‘Shimmy’ Jiyane and Mary Mulovhedzi from the Soweto Gospel Choir.Credit: Edwina Pickles

“Everybody looked [at him] and he said ‘No, you can’t sing this without me. Let me join you’,” Jiyane says. “So we started again and he sang with us.”

The choir, infectiously joyful singers who have now won three Grammys for world music albums, have performed with such luminaries as Beyonce, U2, Queen, Peter Gabriel, Bob Geldof, the Eurythmics, The Corrs and, during their many Australian tours, the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir.

They are back with a show called HOPE, about the struggle against apartheid, which is running during the Sydney Fringe Festival this month. It includes gospel songs in South African languages as well as more familiar English-language numbers such as A Change Is Gonna Come, I’ll Take You There and what Jiyane calls “the best ever version” of Hallelujah.

“Gospel played a very important role in South Africa during the apartheid years because that’s what we used to sing; that’s what we used to listen to,” he says. “Gospel gave us hope. Pastors gave us hope.”

As the nickname “Shimmy” suggests, Jiyane was a dancer and a choreographer before becoming a founding member of the choir under late choirmaster David Mulovhedzi in 2002.

While only a child at the time, he has vivid memories of the bloody Soweto uprising in which police killed protesting schoolchildren in the Johannesburg township in 1976.

“I remember people were kicked, people were shot with rubber bullets,” Jiyane says. “Some of our neighbours got arrested for nothing. To go to town, my mother had to have an ID copy. If she didn’t have that, she didn’t come back home. Either she would be jailed or she would be killed.”

The choir was formed to celebrate the heritage of South Africa, “to celebrate the different cultures we have in our country, and also to celebrate the music, the different genres, and the 11 official languages that we have.

“I get goosebumps when I speak about what the choir means to me. It’s given me so many opportunities. It’s taken us all over the world to express ourselves and share our culture and also share our music. It’s a blessing.”

Jiyane says the choir tries to give audiences a sense of Soweto’s role in helping dismantle apartheid.

“Soweto is where everything started. It’s where the leaders were”: Soweto Gospel Choir.Credit: Will Bucquo/Sydney Fringe Festival

“Soweto is where everything started,” he says. “It’s where the leaders were. The late Archbishop Tutu was from Soweto. Nelson Mandela had a house in Soweto. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela had a house in Soweto. There’s a rich history and we try to showcase that.”

Mary Mulovhedzi, daughter-in-law of the original choirmaster, joined just after having the first of her three children 21 years ago. Her husband, Mulalo Mulovhedzi, was already a member.

“Singing gospel music, for me, is praying,” she says. “The words that you sing, that’s a prayer.”

The choir perform an impromptu number during a sound check at the Spiegeltent Festival Garden. Credit: Edwina Pickles

Mulovhedzi, who calls it as “amazing and humbling” travelling the world with the choir, says Soweto has improved since she grew up in an underprivileged family.

“Freedom is the most changed thing,” she says. “Our kids now go to better schools. There’s better shopping malls in Soweto. You don’t even have to go [elsewhere] to get some things. Of course, some people won’t change but apartheid is not there any more.”

When her husband died from stomach cancer two and a half years ago, Mulovhedzi considered leaving the choir. “I thought I wouldn’t have the strength to go on because each and every thing we did, we did it together,” she says.

Gospel music, prayer and support from the choir helped her through a tough time.

“You know what, this is God’s timing,” she says. “If God chose him, that means he was one of his angels.”

Soweto Gospel Choir’s HOPE is at the Sydney Spiegeltent, Entertainment Quarter, during the Sydney Fringe Festival from September 3 to 25.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.