zabalaza
Damon Heatlie entered the kwaito music video world at the beginning of the new millennium. Within a couple of years he had made his mark on the visualization of the music form for the broadcast media with a series of fluidly edited pieces that combined a knowing sense of “street smarts” with the hi-tech look and feel of contemporary music videos made with far greater budgets than he had access to.
His body of work is rare in the kwaito field in that it has the instant stamp of an “author” - a signature. This might be best described as a consistently successful marriage between post-production techniques and the “look” of the production design. Very often in his videos, significant markers of character are displayed by the use of a strong colour - a red or a purple - that is exacerbated in the post-production.
His work, made at furious tempos for ludicrously small budgets - displays a willingness to engage with the “man maak een plan” work ethic of kwaito itself, and hence the success of the videos, that distinguish themselves from the lumpen (lack of) quality of most of the genre.
His greatest moment was ZABALAZA, a video for the Brothers of Peace. In this mini masterpiece, the coming together of production design, of song mood, of editing tempo, of direction and of overall atmosphere - leaves the viewer crying out for more. More than any other kwaito video, ZABALAZA bridges the gap between struggle era urban South Africa and the so-called “new South Africa”, where bling is a media lie, where the mindless monotony of computer dance music denies the hideous truth of the urban nightmare of South Africa today.
Zabalaza is a work deeply rooted in the tradition of conscious music - it fits snugly alongside work by Linton Kwezi Johnson, Mzwakhe and MIA. There is a militant feel to the music that is perfectly captured in by Heatlie’s framing. But the song isn’t merely an agit-prop anthem - the haunting minor chord progression speaks of a unbearable sadness in the souls of the working class protagonists of the video who understand more than they will ever be able to afford. This is profound African pop music that can stand proudly next to the best of the Senegalese school or even Cesaria Evora.
ZABALAZA was a milestone in the kwaito genre - both the song and the video remain without peer. Only Zola has come anywhere close. The genre seems to have put its best days behind it and run its course to some extent. One hopes that Heatlie will find a new challenge, a new promise, and a new forum for his distinctive and unequivocal talents in the music video field.
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