KWAITO DANCE...

 Dont call my number (facebook),bumpa side to side,zombooo zombo maweee,lento..this are among the kwaito tracks when played at night clubs in my country you would see people start queuing to dance the shuffle style which is well known as kwaito..please learn more about kwaito and enjoy...
Kwaito is a music genre that emerged in Johannesburg, South Africa, during the 1990s. It is a variant of house music featuring the use of African sounds and samples. Typically at a slower tempo range than other styles of house music, Kwaito often contains catchy melodic and percussive loop samples, deep bass lines, and vocals. Although bearing similarities to hip hop music, a distinctive feature of Kwaito is the manner in which the lyrics are sung, rapped and shouted. American producer Diplo has described Kwaito as "slowed-down garage music," most popular among the black youth of South Africa.



The word kwaito is an Isicamtho term from the Gauteng townships and encompasses styles that range from guz, d'gong, and isgubhu to swaito. The word originates from the Afrikaans kwaai, which traditionally means strict or angry, although in more common and contemporary use the word is a loose translation of the English term cool. Kwaito led a post-Apartheid township subculture into the mainstream. Despite the fact that the Afrikaans language is associated with the apartheid regime and racial oppression, Afrikaans words are often drawn into the Isicamtho vocabulary, reshaped and used in a related or new context. M'du Masilela, a pioneering Kwaito artist, said, "When house music got popular, people from the ghetto called it Kwaito after the Afrikaans slang word kwai , meaning those house tracks were hot, that they were kicking." Another Isicamtho word derived from the Afrikaans word kwaai is amakwaitosi, which means gangster. The popular Kwaito artist and producer Arthur Mafokate describes the relationship between Kwaito and gangsterism as music revolving around ghetto life.

                                                              Tofu Tofu Dancers
 There are two artists who claim to be the kwaito originators.
One is M'du, who claims he was the first to mix BubbleGum with House from the UK and the US back in the 1980s. The other is Arthur Mafokate, who is also credited by some as the king of Kwaito, including himself as he wrote in a two-page piece called "Am I the king of Kwaito?"
Mafokate's claim to fame is due to importance of his 1993 song "Don't call me Kaffir", which put the Kwaito genre on the charts.
The first official Kwaito song played in South Africa, done by Arthur, with the usage of one of the most degrading words that white colonialists would call black Africans, Kaffir is the Arabic word for ‘non-believer’ or a ‘heathen’ which is the word that Afrikaans described the natives with. In his song, Arthur demands the Boss, ‘Nee baas’ (No Boss), ‘don’t call me a Kaffir...;
The song, written in several forms, talked about how apartheid will not just go away overnight but change is coming. His groundwork has created an avenue for South African youth to channel their anger, talent and their voice, an outlet that they can call their own.^{[citation needed]} Through this music the youth were able to express their feelings of oppression. One of the originators of Kwaito, DJ and producer Oscar waRona of B.O.P, has said that it started out as house with small additions to that genre such as congas and other instruments. Arthur Mafokate's "major" hit "Don't call me a Kaffir" was about white people in South Africa using that word to refer to the black people. The song was made possible because of the post-apartheid system, but never would have been recognized or accepted in the apartheid times.

tofo tofo dancing kwaito

 "who run the world ,while i was watching this legit video for the first time i did ask myself where did Beyonce get this massive dancers??the answer came after i visited youtube.
You know the part where Beyonce does the  shoulder-work in gorilla fur vest.  I think the whole video should just have included more incredible dance moves with members of Tofo Tofo, the Mozambican kwaito dance group in the video. There are three members in the group, but only two appeared in the video. Although we know the group is called Tofo Tofo,  the actual names of the dancers haven’t been published.
Beyonce and her team discovered Tofo Tofo on Youtube, and tracked them down in Mozambique to be in her video. In order to find the dancers Beyonce’s team had to enlist the help of the Mozambique embassy.

“We had seen something on YouTube; we had seen these three guys from Africa, this Mozambique African dance troupe … we were like, ‘Wow, this is an amazing movement.’ [...] And that movement has always been in the back of our head for the last year. From there, we talked about a lot of concepts.”
“We say, ‘Share the light, you sparkle brighter,’ and we share our light with a lot of new, creative people. I feel like we really nailed it and, again, my hats off to the Tofo Tofo guys [from Africa], ’cause none of us could imitate that. We had to bring them around to learn that [move], which is really, really interesting. They had such a great vocabulary of movement.”
“Those two dancers not only helped shape the moves in the video, but also moved Beyoncé. That was probably one of the most beautiful experiences for Beyoncé. They were so humbled. [...] I’m pretty sure we’ll see them again. It was magical.” [Read more]

According to Gaston, it took about two months to track down the dancers due to them living in remote areas in their home country of Mozambique. Beyonce wanted them to be a part of her video so bad that they had to get the Embassy’s help to find them! What a blessing

Kwaito is a form of self-expression and a way of life—it is the way many South Africans dress, speak, and dance. It is a street style as lifestyle, where the music reflects life in the townships, much the same way hip hop reflects life in the American ghetto. As a result, the growth of kwaito in post-Apartheid South Africa has changed not only the music scene but many urban cultural aspects as well. The fashion industry has boomed all over the country, with urban apparel designers such as Stoned Cherrie, Loxion Kulca, and Sun Godd'ess setting trends based on those trends emphasized by kwaito artists. YFM, a youth radio station launched in Gauteng in 1997, has become the most widely listened to urban youth radio station in the country, adhering to the principle of giving the youth the license to create its own identity. After having been rejected by major record labels of the apartheid era, many independent kwaito labels emerged such as Kalawa, Triple 9, and Mdu Music. These labels produced myriad employment opportunities for young Black producers, engineers, and attorneys in the music industry and, more importantly, has provided young Black people with a source of financial gain and dignity. Furthermore, kwaito has strengthened social integration. While promoting South Africa internationally through successful overseas tours by artists such as Bongo Maffin, Tkzee, and Boomshaka, kwaito has gained a huge following with older Black people who grew up on protest songs, as demonstrated by President Thabo Mbeki when he performed the S'guqa dance with kwaito artist Mzekezeke during his song "S’guqa ngamadolo" at the 2003 Freedom day celebrations. This marked a huge change in the way people envisioned kwaito, engendering a more widespread commercial audience.

                                                                     Dj Cleo
Famous kwaito DJs—such as DJ Oskido, DJ Rudeboy Paul, DJ Mjava, and DJ Cleo—are well known for producing many of the big Hip-Hop South African Artists. Many of these DJ's in Kwaito release their own albums after producing other famous musicians in South Africa. The majority of them do not make much money but have very high hopes for the future. DJ Cleo said "All I need is that one chance produce just that one song for any rapper, Jay-Z, Jah Rule, 50 Cents, whatever. And I will kill it. It will become a hit worldwide. Try me. Whoever you're going to play this to, get a hold of me." Very similar to other genres of music, Kwaito wants to stay original and stick close to the roots. DJ cleo is considered one who tries to stay careful not to abandon his kwaito fan base in a flash because many Kwaito fans take abandoning the original tunes as offensive and turning your back on the Kwaito meaning.
CRITICS:
Despite what it has brought to the country, kwaito faces critics. The kwaito music industry is viewed as male-dominated, especially in management. There are few successful female artists. Lebo Mathosa, who was one of kwaito’s most famous female artists and a member of Boom Shaka, noted that it is "difficult because every producer that you meet in our country is male there isn’t even one female producer that you could say ok I like that record that is produced by so and so." Others accuse kwaito as being talentless, commercialized and mass-produced, consisting of sexually-driven lyrics and dances.