Jambo Africa Online’s Publisher, SAUL MOLOBI, spent his festive December 25 to 2 December week with Bongani Mathebula drawing from his artistic and creative well to enrich his soul with narratives on the role of art, writing and music as drivers of unique heart-warming and soul-caressing tourism experiences.
Bongani Mathebula, aka 25 Bluez, is a local South African artist/ writer/ songwriter/ vocalist/ entrepreneur in the tourism sector. A multidisciplinary and ambidextrous fine artist, graphic designer ( 2D transitioning to 3D drawings), painter, graffiti and street art. This qualified historian has garnered 25 accreditations for storytelling and writing; a tai chi student who owns a rare tai chi book that was given to him as a present by his 97 year old Tai chi master. He effortlessly executes each talent at an overwhelming scale diligently and with military precision.
Born in Soweto’s Orlando East, a township home to the world’s renowned Nobel Peace Laureates – Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu – as well as the godfather of Soweto, the legendary James “Sofasonke” Mpanza.
Bongani is a gifted wordsmith – a writer and a street poet who has the ability to freestyle for more than an hour. He is an entrepreneur who runs an independent tourism company, Jozytriangel, that has been running for a good 11 years. He is a historian of note who speaks on past, present and future events. He is recognised on a global scale by a fair amount of people and major tourism companies, as well as Forbes magazine and different universities in the United States, SA’s Gordon Institute Business School (Gibs) that did a study on him and his street art tours.
The writing bug bit from an early age when he was doing Grade 5 and when by the time he reached his 7th grade, he had effectively joined the hip hop movement in Johannesburg and participating in street rap battles. His sterling performances earned him street cred. He is one of the few rappers in Africa who journeyed in the realm of writing and street battles for more than 17 years and has released a single album that married two often misconstrued as contradictory: the commercial and the underground worlds. He brought harmony between the two.
His ability to paint and draw with both hands manifested as early as Grade 2 when he became the only learner in the whole school to produce a fine art piece that many believed was by an adult artist. His teachers recognised his talent and encouraged him to imbibe and infuse the history of this country into his works. The environment in one of the first few groups of multi racial private schools in the Gauteng City Region immediately after 1994, with a the level of education being extremely high, gave him the kind of context he could juxtapose from his township experience. The history taught in his school was detailed to the core which covered the history of South Africa from the 1600s to the present day while giving a re-interpretation of the latter. He has acquired an overwhelming knowledge of South African history, Africa and an immense understanding of global cultural development through books as he is an ardent reader – thus listening to him is like watching an epic movie with the right touches of everything.
He argues freestyling was big in Johannesburg before Eminem’s movie, “8 Mile”.
Bongani’s shift from freestyling in the streets to writing lyrics and recording songs came about when a fellow artist approached him in the streets and said: “Brother, you look like a musician, please come to my studio and do something.” Though they had different styles, one being very commercial and the other coming from the underground, Bongani musically delivered a beautiful picture on the song to everyone’s amazement; it was at that moment that his journey to becoming a recording artist began.
Bongani’s music is a blend of world music, hip hop, soul and Afro-beat – a harmony that formulates a different but appealing pop sound with poetry and rap driving a potent lyrical delivery. He describes his sound as “a beautiful journey of poetry riding on experimental sounds”. His influences come from the environment, meaningful talks with people (familiar and strange) extracting genuineness and authenticity.
In 2016 Bongani was awarded a certificate by the Gauteng Tourism Authority and SA Tourism for his achievements in storytelling, music, an African custodianship and more. He achieved the merit award for being able to tell stories from all three levels of creativity (writing, painting and music) – this became one of his highest achievements in the art world.
Bongani is currently recognized by organizations such as the Global Citizen and University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) for his tourism promotions work; Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) for his musical talents; Unknown Union Brand for his recognition as a Creative Designer. He also worked with the House of Zekkariyas (formerly known as Womack and Womack. He was honoured with a special moment to interview Vikki Tobak, a pioneer of the hip hop culture in USA, and represented South African rap by performing a live cypher.
Having been featured on Sunday Times’ Lifestyle section for being “an extravagant poet with brilliant writing credentials” at the age of 15-16, his patient approach to life and art has to be the most inspiring story. He says: “Music is a very mature instrument that sings to the soul, it takes precious time and respect to tune it to the rhythm of life and speaks to the people.”
It was in 2019 that it was the first time that Bongani released his long awaited EP in his long artistic journey which was a joint venture with music producer, King Fahrenheit. The latter is a music producer/composer from Angola (Huambo) that has been creating music since 2004. He has worked with artists – both up and coming and established – from different countries across Africa. He King prides himself with crafting music of exceptional quality, current, contemporary and which appeals to mass pop culture fans. He crafts a sound that seamlessly fuses with each artist. He has experience in creating sounds that have a mass appeal to audiences on a pan-African landscape and globally.
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Bongani Mathebula: Waxing lyrical in his own linguistic and creative idiom
I’ve been in the tourism Industry for over 11 years now, I’m a tour operator and tourist guide. I create unique travel experiences and guide my favourite tours whenever I wish to, my tours are designed to make guests experience local culture as authentic as possible.
Over the years I’ve learnt to genuinely understand the expectations and needs of international guests, and the locals too, and work out a meeting point between the two market segments. I tailor make experiences to clients’ needs without compromising on the essence of South African history and go about it with a much more open mind while expressing the fundamentals with understanding. My tours have helped guests to step away from traditional tourism offerings as I introduce them to current affairs, contemporary thoughts, activities, ideas and actually linking them up with modern and post-modernist influences in South Africa – and Johannesburg as the cultural melting pot of Africa. I give my guests a bouquet of narratives and experiences, we look at the country’s history, present times and what the future might bring premised on today’s progression.
I have chosen to introduce new routes into tourism. I made it easy to step away from sterile information that is stagnant – the type not to help guests open up their minds and see things for what they truly are holistically. I saw ways out of the old tour routes into a present day society. I found a way of plugging different countries from all over the world with South Africa and Jo’burg – a creative way of the balancing of plugging-in an alien life style into a new contemporary life styles simultaneously as a way of interweaving of different cultures as informative as one could be in the most realistic and genuine manner. What you narrate to your guests becomes their reality. I had an opportunity to present contemporary reality within a historical context – which has been and always will be an opportunity to educate travellers, and help them to be flexibly embrace new destinations without having to experience a replica of a lifestyle similar to where they come from. This is all about offering new cultural experiences. I’ve added art into the mixture which pretty much has helped guests to easily grasp the freedoms of spaces I have been taking them to. The world of artistic fantasy and realism collide into existential coexistence as traveller experiences become more pleasant and exciting. This story is inherently African in a state of utopia. Life becomes complete – the full circle of life becomes a reality!
I specialise in walking tours around the city of Johannesburg. I afford you the opportunity to get the look and feel of the internal dynamics of this golden city from your own perspective so you can be able to tell your own story based on your subjective interpretation of your experience.
You’ll look into the past through the knowledge of your informative and informed guide, see various sites in the city, witness the past, present, future encapsulated into the eccentric vibe of Johannesburg in construction. My other specialty is street art and graffiti walking tours in and around Johannesburg.
I’ll show you the display on buildings and walls of many art works and murals – masterpieces from well known graffiti artists who emanating from different places – locally and from across the continent. Besides our specialisation with street walking tours, we also cater for drive tours all over the Gauteng City Region and South Africa at large, from nature reserve to community tours In specific chosen townships – the highlights of which range from bungee jumping tours to overnight stays in backpacker spaces situated in various townships.
Watch the following AirBnB videos showcasing Bongani in action: