“Sonic Liberation Across Alkebulan”
- written by Emily Freedman
All images by @rishi_prg
Operation Khataza- Where they’ve been and where they’re going
I first experienced Operation Khataza in July 2023. It was like nothing I had ever felt or heard before. I remember putting my hand to my heart as if i was singing an anthem. And it was something like that, except also the complete opposite of that- a stepping out of given structures in lieu of something deeply internal and simultaneously collective. Their reach and fanbase has been expanding since the band’s conception in 2023. Jeriah and I had the honour of interviewing the band on the precipice of their first national tour.
Operation Khataza, from left: Jarryd ‘Chuckie’ Alexander (bass), Vuyo Nkasawe (keys), Timothy Fortes (drums), Sanele Blaai/uFarrah Khataza (lead vocalist/guitarist), Mariana del Carmen/MANA (backup vocalist), Benji Anstey (lead guitar), Fabian Arries Selote (spoken word), Lois Flandorp (backup vocalist)
How did Khataza come into being?
Sanele: “I had the idea about 3 years ago. I was already an artist at the time and then I had this feeling for something I wanted to shift to. I had told MANA about it the first time we met and we had a session together, and later we had a gig. We met Jarryd and he gelled in with us immediately. He listened to the music a couple of times and came back to me saying ‘Okay, this is what I got’.”
“At the time the music was too raw and I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t understand what I was trying to do. Jarryd was the guy that understood, and he allowed me to hear the music on bass for the first time. Jarryd knew Lois and Tim and brought them in. Fabian and I have known each other for a long time, if I’m not around he’s probably the one who can tell you the process and what we’ve been through to make this happen. I met Benji in his backyard, shirtless!”
Benji: “I had checked out the music, but then I saw them play at Search and I thought to myself ‘Ayo this band is cool, I would love to be in a band like this.’ And then they gave me the call looking for a lead guitarist.”
Sanele: “And then Vuyo was a new addition. Chuckie was the plug who told me that we need to put this guy on. Once Vuyo came in it became what it is now. The music is being taken care of, everybody is doing good. They’re all flexing their skills and doing what they need to do for this thing to work.”
Tell me more about your initial meeting with Mana and the vision that you had.
Sanele: “It was after I had just gone hard at a festival.”
Jarryd: “Wasn’t it at Pangaea?”
Mana: “It was at Pangaea. We met and Sanele asked me what I do and then I think I sang something for like 5 seconds and then we were both like ‘Ja’, this is it.”
Sanele: “That was March of 2023. In terms of the vision, it was a sound, a band, it was all of that. Main thing was I knew she was good with the vocals. And she told me that she played, but the main thing was the vocals, the call and response, that thing was in my head. That Fela Kuti vibe, I have to say something and then the people sing it back to me. But when Chuckie came through with the bass that’s when the whole idea came together.”
How did the band progress in the early stages?
MANA: “Anyone and everyone got added to the band. We had a band of many, many people. We were a community band for real, every time you came to see us it was different. If you walked in while we were in rehearsal and just learnt the words you were in the next gig.”
Lois: “We were also based in such a public space.”
Where were you based at the beginning?
Chuckie: “42 Trill Road in Obs, at a space called V.declutter. Actually the homie that owns the brand, Tshivase, he's the one that connected me and Sanele.”
Chuckie: “We were based in Obs for the most part.”
Benji: “We had did have a brief stop up in Town though.”
Sanele: “We were living laaavish”
Chuckie: “Credit where credit is due, that spot held us down. The level of equipment and stuff, outside of practicing at Timothy’s house, that was the first time we had privacy outside of the homies. The first time we could rehearse until 11pm, we had microphones and PAs, and we could actually test out our sound.”
Fabian: “As a musician who wants to take this thing seriously, being able to go from a thrift shop into a space where you have access to equipment, just that step up makes you realise that this thing is building and it's working out.”
How did Khataza shift from being a community band to a formalised group?
MANA: “It was like one step forward, two steps back. We had to have some awkward conversations about who was actually in the band and who wasn't. Last year we took an approach to be more polished and to refine what we had: the gem which I feel was always in Sanele’s music. When he was playing there was just this feeling of something bigger. Even though the song was just a voice and guitar, you could feel so much more in it.”
Benji: “I also felt what MANA describes, that there was something bigger. I think that feeling is captured best by a collective, it's a group of people coming together to capture that energy. There is more freedom for us to be ourselves and interact together because there’s an identity, “Operation Khataza’. That allows us to maneuver with this level of freedom and to take it forward, because it's a thing, it's not just us playing music.”
Fabian: “It's living, it's alive.”
What is it like shifting from organic growth, to a space where you’re having to take yourself more seriously?
Tim: “The shows have been better. From the music perspective, the playing has improved a lot. And overall enjoyment. We are giving something to the audience that they deserve. They can feel that. If we have respect for what we’re doing, they can feel that energy.”
Fabian: “From a background perspective, it's become tougher, logistically. We have to make sure things are structured properly, we have to make sure we work on a rollout plan. There is room for a lot of complacency, but with understanding what the vision is that you have to adhere to, a lot of growing up is coming with the phase that we’re in now. Yes, playing the shows is fun and we’re having fun together, but to make those things happen we have to think with our adult brains.”
Lois: “And we have to hold each other accountable.”
Sanele: “Also we have dreams. We all have people that we want to be like, there's a goal we all want to reach at some point. This platform is able to help everybody get to where they’re going.”
Benji: “As these kinds of projects grow, and I think a lot of projects in Cape Town in this underground space are feeling this or are going to start feeling it pretty soon, you have to build infrastructure in order to support how these things develop. Especially I think because there’s this element of healing and rehabilitation of people and community that we’re trying to spread in Africa specifically.”
“So it's not just about feeling, we need to build something that’s sustainable, that exists, within each other. And we need to build systems that support that. Be it getting financially sustainable, be it playing lots of shows, it's not just about playing lots of shows to get famous, there’s a message that needs to go out. How do we do that? There are real steps that we need to take and I think we’ve been, as a group, trying to figure that out.”
“And we’re also inheriting from the community that exists. We’re drawing on Kujenga, we’re drawing on The Brother Moves On, we’re drawing on people that have come before.”
What are your goals? What is your metric of success? Is it London Jazz Fest, is it to get a message out, to build a community?
Sanele: “I think individually we all have our own places that we want to get to-”
MANA: “-Nigeria!”
Lois: “-Cape to Cairo tour!”
Sanele: “That’s the beautiful thing. We all think to ourselves ‘you know I wouldn't mind…’. But I mean yeah, simple stuff, you know Bushfire, Southern African tours, going further up Africa, and then we go to the Europe side of things maybe.”
“But the main thing for the band is just Africa. Spreading the message, Sonic Liberation Across Alkebulan, we’d like to do that. If there’s a sponsor out there who wants to help us do that, shout out.”
Fabian: “For me the main thing is the one thing that has connected me and Sanele and kept us friends for so long. I used to listen to Sanele sing, and there’s this one song that he hasn’t even done with the band yet, but every time he sings that song he cries. And I feel that song so much.”
“Once I grasped that emotionally it was always about ‘Khataza you have a message. You have something that you’re saying. And it needs to be heard.’ So I guess that’s where the message element comes in for me, I understand the spirit that Sanele bears. Not even just by what he’s saying verbally, words can only say this much.
“As an individual, that is my goal - to get that feeling that I experience every time he sings, to get it out there. I feel it’s important for an individual of whatever colour to feel and to understand within themselves. That’s something that we all bear and he's able to make you tap into that.”
Sanele: “It’s the healing aspect that we need to capture. Once we’re selfless and once we understand that this is beyond us, it's going to take us far. This thing is going to become what it needs to be. And with the vibrations we’re moving with right now, I feel like we’re ready to take over the world.”
What does a writing session look like?
Sanele: “At first it was me doing the foundation and then we build on that. Now its just like -”
Lois “-Its like a bring and braai!”
Sanele: “Yeah, different individuals have their own ideas, they bring them through and then we workshop. Chuckie likes fiddling around on bass, in whatever frequency he hears. Tim always understands where to go, that’s the thing about Tim. Benji also, just needs to hear a couple things and then goes. And Vuyo, ah he’s the maqhuzu as they say, he's just out here doing his thing.”
“Everyone is working their part. The vocal section is amazing. They push me hard to be one of the best, because they also want that for themselves. It just works out, you know. Warm ups, which I never did because I thought I was a rockstar you know. But you have to do all these things even if it sounds funny and you look stupid.”
Lois: “Yeah we’ve gone ‘bbrrrrrrr’ in very interesting places, but it's fun.”
Benji: “Yea even on top of a church that one time.”
Lois: “Exactly!”
Sanele: “Yeah but it's fun you know, Getting to have a good instrumentation is the best thing. When people are in sync and they want the best for themselves, they want the best for the music, it ends up being what it is now, something that’s just moving on its own and at its own pace. We are in control of what’s happening now, and that’s why we’re going to keep that discipline of owning our stuff.”
“A lot of things are coming by, negative stuff you know, stuff like “you can’t do that” and so on. There’s a lot of feedback bouncing around, and it won't always be the most positive all the time.”
Benji: “I think we are in a very particular workflow at the moment, we’ve opened up ourselves to a lot of feedback from a lot of people who we really trust and respect. People who are in the same lineage that we’re in.”
“Some of it is really constructive - we’ve broken into sections now. Like as a rhythm section we’ll rehearse, as a vocal section we’ll rehearse, we’re having sessions to work on poetry. So I think our work ethic has really taken shape, and I think that’s also showing in the music and in our connection. Breaking off and coming back together, shows cohesiveness.”
I really liked your use of lineage instead of ‘industry”. Tell me more about what lineage means to you
Benji: “Coming from studying Jazz, I’ve always felt like there are these ideas of lineages. When you improvise there’s this idea of ‘quoting’. When you quote Charlie Parker or you quote John Coltrane you are acknowledging the lineage that they come from.”
“It's actually an element of respect - it’s not that you need to copy or play a whole John Coltrane solo, but just playing a small thing that’s inspired by him or maybe something that he’s played once upon a time, it shows to the community that you are in that lineage. I think there’s a valuable role which that plays in society. We aren't the first people to do what we’re doing. We might be the first to do it in this exact way, but we aren't the first.”
What is the ideology or political inspiration underlying the music?
Sanele: “I think there’s a lot of unlearning that comes with growing up. We get fed a certain programme and then it ends up not working for you. I think we’re all facing that, we’re unlearning so much that we’ve been fed, within the institutions.”
“I feel like this message is broad, it's not just based on an individual. It's something that’s for everybody. There’s a song that says ‘If you think you’re alone, think again, because we’re together in this’. Also, within my black community we love singing, it brings people together.”
“Music is what we’re about, you know, we’re gonna tell you stuff that maybe you didn’t know about through this music, stuff that makes you go back to yourself. There’s a code that’s floating out there, so we’re decoding. There’s so many people that need that healing aspect, just to go back to themselves.”
“Instrumentation-wise, they don't have to sing, but they can match up to the message. We’ve referenced bands like Kujenga, like Brother Moves On. With this project too there's this message, this element of just bringing joy, of being happy to be in that setting. We’re doing that, but it’s also healing us. I could be having a bad day but when I meet with the team I know I’m going to be healed. So I think it's important for all of us to be doing what we’re doing.”
And you have a Pan-African focus?
Sanele: “Yeah of course, that’s the focus, but Pan-African doesn't mean we’re excluding people. It’s a way of thinking, it's how we see ourselves in this structure.”
“Sometimes with these words, I don't know, I’m not too much into academia and language so sometimes there are these things that I don’t know how to articulate properly. I’m a street cat, even with the guitar, I just picked it up and I wanted to play.”
Lois: “When you asked about the message something came to mind. I had done a project at varsity and I ended up asking Fabian a question when I was looking for data. I had asked him what he thinks Sonic Liberation is. I feel we all have multiple understandings of what the concept is, and all those understandings can coexist and move towards the same goal. When I asked Fabian he said the following:
“Sonic Liberation Across Alkebulan refers to the idea of finding the way towards our roots, as African Youth, through the sonic traces. Knowledge of yourself is a big work, and that knowledge is a part of how you attain that freedom”.
“That doesn't necessarily just mean knowledge in the form of academia. Lived experience is also knowledge and that's just as valuable as what you read on a piece of paper. That’s kind of where my understanding also is, of Sonic Liberation, and I think it umbrellas over all of our understandings.”
“Tracing back to oneself and who you are, who your ancestors are, where you are, what the land is, your connection to it, your connection to people - All of that, and how we can express that freely, without limitations.”
“An example is how a song can be political, and the next one can be a love song, and the next can be something different altogether. That is Sonic Liberation at work. In a time where art has all these limitations put on it, we have that Sonic Liberation, and we live that through. We don't have to be one thing or the other thing, we can be all of it.”
Fabian: “This Liberation cause touches on all elements that I feel need healing. Whether it be something that is happening in the community, whether it be political, whether it be internal, heart, mind, spirit, everything. A Liberation of that, that’s what this sound does.”
How does the ideology translate into the sound?
Chuckie: “From an instrumentation perspective of what Sonic Liberation means musically - it only came to light, to me, later on. This guy over here, Sanele, has a very uncanny, strange way of writing music. If you approach it from a learned perspective, if you fully use this tool box that the institutions have given you and you think ‘this is how I’m gonna play this’, you’re gonna get your ass cooked.”
“The amount of times people found it difficult to improvise to the harmonies on the songs. What kept the four of us on the instrumentation side is the ability to step away from what we’ve learnt and open our minds.”
Benji: “What I really enjoy about the band is that it’s given me the opportunity to play and reference a lot of styles. I love Pan-African guitar music, all over the place it’s played differently.
“The band has given me the opportunity to take the tools that I’ve learned in the institution to check out genres which aren't in the institution, and the opportunity to play it here and reference it.”
Vuyo: “One of the big reasons I joined the band in the first place is because it felt very freeing to play this type of music. Before I even joined I was listening to the Other Radio recording and while I was jamming to that and really trying to figure out this music and how to play to it.”
“It took me a while because like Chuckie said I was using the institution, what was drilled into me. Once I stepped back from that though, and I just kind of connected with my musical self, that’s when I had a better time. Because I’ve spent time playing music that is totally inaccessible to other people.
“So it’s very refreshing for me to come in here and play music that I've heard before, music that sounds familiar but also music that I haven’t. It's been a learning experience.”
The sound is like nothing else. For me, there’s this discord and tension that resonates with pain, and then it releases and it's like freedom.
Fabian: “Someone once told me that there’s a difference between liberation and freedom. But because we’re always looking for solutions in things, liberation is the activation of freedom. We activate the liberation and then its up to the individual to find that freedom”
How would you characterise the music? Does it fall into a genre, is it post genre? Do you think using words is even helpful or necessary?
Sanele: “So far, the genre is Khataza. We are here to cause trouble. If you’re tryna put us in a box it won't work out. Some people say Afro-Fusion -”
Lois: “Which in itself is confusing.”
Chuckie: “For the longest time we got ‘Afro-Punk’ based off of one song.”
Sanele: “But that’s the thing, people reference us to a lot of different bands. We’re doing our own shit. We have these elements, but we’re not a band that’s stagnant.”
Fabian: “It’s the lineage that Benji was talking about as well.”
Sanele: “And that’s how it is man, we can't just stick to one thing.”
Chuckie: “I think also what helps with regard to us not being boxed in is that there was never really an expectation, or condition of what the genre should be, going into this.”
Benji: “I think that’s also why there needed to be a process of going through musicians. Because of that level of creative freedom, it was about finding people that were aligned on an innate level. Ideologically, musically, what are we referencing, what is the vision. That’s like a personal thing, a vibrational thing. I think we’re at that point now where, on a personal level, we’re all aligned.”
What kind of relationship do you guys have with your fanbase?
Sanele: “Our fan base is our community man, our fan base are people that we bounce around ideas with, people that we’re able to collaborate with. But now we’re going up to Joburg, which is another energy, so we also need to prepare for that mentally.
“We don't know what to expect, but I feel like with the response that we’re getting, that crowd is going to enjoy us so much. They’ll understand more of what the message is about.”
MANA: “The fanbase that we have here in Cape Town often feels like they’re a part of the band. It's really close, and they know the words. To have people singing what you’re singing, at you, and they know the words, and they’re wearing Nappy Studios - they’re around and they’re with us.
“It’ll be interesting to go to different cities and see if we can have that type of relationship. I wish we had space in the car to bring everyone with us! It just makes the show, it brings a deeper integrity to the show.”
Sanele: “People are singing our shows from afar as well. I think it's easy music, maybe not from the instrumentation, but with the vocals it's an easy interaction. It’s like ‘Let’s do this, What’s happening? Are you gonna do this? Are you with me? Are you gonna join me?’ It's fun you know , it's like you’re tapping into that 5 year old person, It's like you’re playing with your friends.”
What’s your opinion of the current creative scene in the city, and where do you see it going from here?
Sanele: “For me personally I had this mindset of creating this project, but also there’s a lot of gatekeeping happening. I think I needed to find my community, to be able to feel at home with whatever creative stuff I had.
“Sometimes you're out there just tryna fit in, and it doesn't really work. There’s a lot of cultures bouncing around Cape Town which we don't necessarily fit in. But we’re doing this, we are culture, we are a movement, we are something that a lot of people are going to find their home in.”
Fabian: “I see the culture in a positive lens. There are a lot of negative things, like mainstream, but I do see a big growth in the underground, in independent artists coming up. They don't care about labels, they’re just doing their thing.”
“So I feel like in that aspect the culture is in a really good place. Of course with good always comes bad, there's always something to fight. There’s always disadvantages, doing it independently comes with its own challenges. Promoters don’t respect us the same, and if you’re not coming with a manager or someone who’s certified in the circles then you don't have access to certain things.”
“But the beautiful thing is that we’re creating those things ourselves now, and a lot of the youth is doing that. Not just in Cape Town, but I’ve been following up on bands in Jozi and they're doing the same thing. A lot of independant kids are just coming up and doing their thing. And in turn a lot of these promoters are turning to the kids and wanting to put the kids on. I just hope that we are wise enough to understand that when things like that happen, the ball is in our court. We get to make those decisions.”
Benji: “Building on that, there’s this element in the underground community that I've experienced in trying to organize events and tours where there's a lot more sharing right now, in spite of all the gatekeeping. People are just keen to create, you know.
“There are people that we’re speaking to to chat to us about the music, those who are a bit more established are happy to give. Chatting to people in Joburg, people are happy to hop on and get involved, and to open their space. Long may that last. It's continuing to grow in Cape Town and I think it's special.”
Sanele: “It is special, getting to have people who really enjoy what we’re doing and support us, even seeing people with our t-shirts on. It’s amazing.”
Chuckie: “I had this conversation with Zwide from Kujenga sometime last year. The space that we’re in right now as Operation Khataza and Kujenga is very weird. It’s almost like we’re born too late, but also we’re born at the perfect time. Kujenga, Khataza, all these newer bands, we all came up just after the black band renaissance.”
“Just after AfroPunk was still going down, When Oppikoppi was really cooking, Rocking the Daises still featured bands - we kinda just missed it, which kinda sucks. But at the same time, it’s good for us, because there’s none of that. So we’re able to bring that back , that space back with that energy and that vibe.”
Who and what are your guys' individual influences?
Chuckie: “For collectives or groups, I’d say The Brother Moves On, and one band that hasn’t been mentioned yet that’s really important to our scene, BLK JKS. That sound right there is *chef’s kiss*. Gotta throw a sneaky Kujenga in there. Also bassist Fana Zulu, Thundercat, and most importantly, Zwide Ndwandwe”
Vuyo: “As a pianist, obviously I have a lot of influences, jazz and classical, like Keith Jarrett, Thelonious Monk, some of the greats. But coming into this band I’ve found myself feeling a lot more inspired by Joe Zawinul, the stuff he did with Weather Report. Personally I guess with my own music I’ve been really into Kiefer, this really cool guy.”
“But I think this band is really dope, we all pool a lot of influences to get this whole melting pot, down to the second we play a single note. For everything, the articulation, how loud that note is, where it's placed, all of that is informed by influences from everybody. It all just mixes well together.”
Tim: “I’m not gonna say a lot. I think for me, I’ve listened to a lot of drummers, but in this project I’ve been inspired by everyone else here. I’m also developing in my art and how I’m playing as a musician. But playing with these cats and playing this music, my musicality is informed a lot more by them. And also finding who I am behind the kit - it's been fun and I’ve been inspired by everybody.”
Benji: “I draw a lot of inspiration in the articulation that I choose, specifically for my right hand technique, Thomas Mapfumo and Chimurenga’s style. I mean he's not the actual guitarist but it's the ensembles that he brings together, there are a few.
“I look to a Zimbabwean guitarist named Mono Mokundo, who I actually took lessons with. He played with Oliver Mtukudzi at the peak of his career. There’s a very percussive style, very spiritual and it has a lot of political impact which I also kind of respect a lot. It brings a lot of impetus to the sound. And it's all guitar centric.
“I’m also enjoying a lot of Dr Thomas Chauke’s music at the moment. Selaelo Selota - the way the vocal section kind of comes into play on some of his songs on The Azanian Songbook album, that as well.”
Fabian: “My role is the word, just highlighting what we are saying, what we’re trying to put across in a way that everyone in the room understands. Influence on that comes back again to Sanele, takes me back to that specific feeling when Sanele would be sitting and rehearsing and I would just be filming, there's just something there that needs to come out.
“And that’s where I draw my inspiration from, that’s what it's always been. Firstly from that feeling, also just from personal experience, a person living in South Africa, a person that can imagine what other people are living like.”
Lois: “I don’t know, I can’t pinpoint something that exists that inspires I guess. I mean I think whatever I do is obviously going to be everything that I’ve been raised in. My parents are both pastors, so ,you know, singing in church. I rejected singing for a long time and only started singing a couple years ago, because they needed a singer, not because I wanted to sing.”
“But I think my inspiration would probably be my mom. She’s my mom and she sings all the time, my grandmother sang as well. It feels like singing was also a very gendered thing in my mind, but that shift was like reconnecting with my inspirations who are my mother and my grandmother, and the whole family who was very musical, in the church context specifically.”
“I guess the majority of what’s coming from me is from that gospel influence. When I joined the band that’s when I realised, especially being friends with Jarryd, who was naming all of these music legends, I realised that I didn’t even listen to jazz in that sense.”
MANA: “When we’re playing I think about Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor vibes. But also taking direction from Sanele, I actually remember this every time we play ‘Togetherness’, you said we should sing zixolele like children, so I imagine this child voice.
“When I think about who I’m referencing or what I'm referencing during performance or rehearsal, it's more of the spirit of the song and what we’re trying to communicate in that moment. So like zixolele meaning ‘forgive yourself’, imagining that we are these children or pure spirits sang ‘you can forgive yourself’.
“So for me it's more of a feeling or an attitude that’s inspiring the music itself. But personally, Esperanza Spalding, and Genevieve Artadi. And Solange. Those three for me are my personal influences”
Sanele: “For me I’m just inspired by sounds of Africa. From indigenous sounds to what evolved, guitar music or jazz or whatever. Just Africa in its whole, the music that comes from the continent.”
“Also life in general, I’m inspired by life. Being able to be with amazing people and experience life, and be awake the next day - those are things that inspire me and keep me going.”
What’s next for Operation Khataza?
Sanele: “A lot bro, so much is going on. We have an album recording this weekend. There’s a tour in the pipeline as well”
Benji: “So yeah, we’re going on tour in April, so be on the lookout. We’ll be doing our first event on the tour on Sunday the 6th of April. It’ll be a merch launch event, and kind of a community based event just to say Thank You to our people, because we wouldn't, be able to do this without them.”
“Shout out to Concerts SA as well for making this possible. Thursday will be our first actual tour performance which will be in Cape Town at The Commons. Then Friday the 11th we’ll fly up to Johannesburg and Friday night we’ll play a venue called Garden Gig in Johannesburg. Saturday night we’ll be playing at a venue called King Kong. Sikelela Productions had helped us put it on and we’ll be sharing a stage with Amongst the People I know, a really cool experimental jazz group from Johannesburg. Then Sunday we head down to Durban with Amongst the People and play at The Chairman. And then we’ll be back on Monday, and we’ll be playing We Forest Fest.”
Tim: “The album will be coming out some time after the tour, can’t say when, but if people listen to the album as a whole, they will find that there’s a piece of everybody in this album. There might be a specific song that we will have a direction sound wise, but you can find everyones influence in the music.”
“The message is from Sanele, and his writing is on some of the songs, but when we all come together, it's crafted in a way that we all bring our lineage in a melting pot.”
Central to Khataza is reciprocity, a symbiotic relationship between seven individuals and the operation, between a band and a fanbase, between a lineage and a departure:
To unlearn is to understand for the first time
To trouble is to liberate
- written by Emily Freedman
