Listen to Bongeziwe Mabandla’s new single Noba Bangathini

The song is available for streaming and download on all major digital platforms. It is about loving an imperfect person, with Mabandla exploring the frontiers of love in a moving manner.

‘Noba Bangathini’ marks Mabandla and producer Tiago Correia-Paulo’s emergence into a rich and captivating territory where synthesisers and drum loops are as vital as Mabandla’s signature acoustic guitar.

“For me, this song is about surviving and overcoming situations with someone else,” Mabandla said. “It’s about seeing all the obstacles and heartache that comes with sharing your life with another, but still choosing to do so, in spite of it all.”

Throughout the record, the narrator rationalises his choices and views on companionship. The central story is about two people colliding and merging into one. To create the song’s production, Correia-Paulo, who is also known for his guitar work with dub band 340ml, recorded multiple objects hitting each other such as a piece of wood falling, the opening of a coconut with a machete, the dropping of a steel plank, and the throwing of a glass bottle against the wall.

“Bongeziwe wrote the song very much like he wrote most of the songs on iimini,” Correia-Paulo said. “But, because we wanted ‘Noba Bangathini’ to be the song that allowed his audience to experience Bongeziwe coming from a very different place, the first thing we did after first recording it was to mute the acoustic guitar completely and add in a synth.”