The Kids Were Alright

To get you in the mood for the weekend, here is some highly groovy early 90s Afropop from South Africa. It is the Dalom Kids with a couple of tracks from their 1992 album "Sixolele".

For information on the Dalom Kids we return once again to our old friend Max Mojapelo's seminal tome, "Beyond Memory: Recording the History, Moments and Memories of South African Music". This is what Max has to say:

"In 1987 Petronella Rampou and Jacqueline Rotwana joined Dan Tshanda's Splash as backing vocalists. In 1989 Dan [whose nickname was Dalom] added Martha Nzima to the two girls to form a trio. Their debut album Mbalembele went double platinum, and Mathambo (1990) also did well. At that point the pressures of showbiz forced Martha to leave the group. Her replacement came in the person of Magdeline Zungu... In the middle of pre-election violence in 1992 they released a message of forgiveness in the form of their album Sixolele".

I wonder if they were also in part seeking forgiveness from Martha Nzima, who seems to be the Florence Ballard of South African pop. According to Max the revised line-up continued releasing albums every year up until 1997, and less frequently thereafter.

"Corrupt Land" - The Dalom Kids

"Vholangwana" - The Dalom Kids

Here are the girls in action. I don't know when this was shot, but they look a fair bit older than on the cover of "Sixolele", so I would guess it is some time this century.