BY PHUMZILE NDLOVU
MBABANE— Electrifying!
This best describes Saturday’s performance by local legendary artist Thobile Makhoyane and Sumalgy from Mozambique at Yini Loku.
The show dubbed #INVESTINWOMENACCELERATEPROGRESS was in honour of women in celebrating International Women’s Day which was on Friday.
It is also worth mentioning that Makhoyane was celebrating 25 years in the music industry, and Saturday was her first show in the country.
This was confirmed by one of the organisers of the show, Siphilele Magagula. She said: “In honour of International Women’s Day, Yini Loku hosted a performance by the legendary Thobile Makhoyane, accompanied by Mozambican artist Sumalgy. This marks 25 years of Thobile Makhoyane as a musician and multidisciplinary artist, and we were honoured to host her first show in Eswatini in this special year. Her last show in the country was in June 2023.”
She went on to add that Thobile Makhoyane is a musical maverick. She melds influences from Eswatini and abroad under her ‘hypno-rock’ rubric; her vocals and performances are energetic yet ethereal and spiritual.
“Thobile promised that this show would make you humble your soul and confront yourself without feeling ashamed,” Magagula said. She delivered the synergy between Thobile’s voice and Sumalgy’s innovative use of traditional instruments was phenomenal. The performance was very interactive and spiritual.
The duo took the crowd on a journey, starting from a communal lighting of candles and soft percussion to a lively performance that left the audience speechless. Everyone said the performance left them feeling lighter and inspired.
Yini Loku is an independent gathering, co-working, and conferencing venue for artists and creatives in Mbabane. It is located at the Cinelux Building, opposite the Magistrate Court corner of Gwamile and Mandela Street, Mbabane.
Yini Loku opened its doors last year in June and was officially launched in December. This is a space that was born of a partnership between Yebo Art Reach, Yebo Gallery, Antidote Culture Foundation, and Antidote Music and was made possible with funding from the Commonwealth.
Yini Loku is easily accessible to the public because of its central location. It is a vibrant, inclusive, and independent hub for creative action—safe and inspiring spaces where artists and activists, youth, environmentalists, and creatives from diverse backgrounds gather to share, learn, and co-create.
It is worth mentioning that recently Yini Loku offered free space to work with free Wi-Fi for creatives from Wednesday to Friday from 11am to 5pm.
