Dorothy Masuka (3 September 1935 - 23 February 2019) was a South African ja… Read Full Bio ↴Dorothy Masuka (3 September 1935 - 23 February 2019) was a South African jazz singer.

She was born in Bulawayo, (Southern Rhodesia, nowadays Zimbabwe), the fourth of seven children, and her mother was Zulu while her father was a Zambian hotel chef. Still, she attended a Catholic school deemed good by the standards of education allowed blacks. Her family moved to South Africa when she was 12 due to her health. By the time she was 19 she was touring in South Africa with singers she had admired as a girl.

Masuka's music was popular in South Africa throughout the 1950s, but when her songs became more serious, the government began questioning her. Her song "Dr. Malan," mentioning difficult laws, was banned and in 1961 she sang a song for Patrice Lumumba, which led to her exile. This exile lasted 31 years in total during which she lived in Zambia and worked as a flight attendant. She returned to Zimbabwe in 1980 after independence. Many of her songs are in the Ndebele language or Sindebele languages.

In August 2011, Dorothy Masuka and Mfundi Vundla, creator of the popular South African soap opera Generations, confirmed plans to make a film of Masuka's life. The film would concentrate on the years 1952 to 1957.

On 27 April 2017 she featured in the concert "The Jazz Epistles featuring Abdullah Ibrahim & Ekaya" at The Town Hall, New York City, opening the show and delivering "one passionate performance after another, warming up and winning over the crowd".

Lendaba
Dorothy Masuka Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Lendab'ibuhlungu ayihlekisi
Simana sithi heh
Kodw'ibuhlungu

Lendab'ibuhlungu ayihlekisi
Simana sithi heh
Kodw'ibuhlungu

Ibuhlungu, hayi ibuhlungu
Ibuhlungu, yho ibuhlungu

Lendab'ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Ayihlekisi (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Simana sithi heh (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Kodw'ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)

Lendab'ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Ayihlekisi (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Simana siyahleka (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Kodw'ibuhlungu

Yho, yho, yho,
Ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu

Hayi ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Iyo ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu

Lendab'ibuhlungu (Ibuhlungu)
Ayihlekisi
Simana sithi heh
Kodw'ibuhlungu (Ibuhlungu)

Lendab'ibuhlungu bo
Ayihlekisi
Simana siyahleka
Kodw'ibuhlungu

Ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Hayi ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Ibuhlungu

Hayi ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu

Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho, yho
Simana siyahleka (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho, yho
Ibuhlungu

Lendab'ibuhlungu
Ibuhlungu
Ibuhlungu
Ibuhlungu

Lendab'ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Ayihlekisi (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Simana sithi he he (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Kodw'ibuhlungu

Lendab'ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Ayihlekisi (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Simana siyahleka (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
Kodw'ibuhlungu

Ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Hayi ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu

Lendab'ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ayihlekisi (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Hmm (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
Ibuhlungu

Lendab'ibuhlungu
Ayihlekisi
Simana sithi he he
Ibuhlungu

Hay, hay, hay, hay
Hay, hay, hay, hay

Hay, hay, hay, hay
Ibuhlungu

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Dorothy Masuka's song Lendaba are sung in Zulu, a Bantu language widely spoken in Southern Africa. The song's title, Lendaba, means "The Matter" or "The Issue," and it refers to a painful issue that the singer wants to express but finds difficult to articulate. In the first stanza, she repeats the phrase "Lendab'ibuhlungu ayihlekisi," which means "The painful issue eludes us." She follows this line with "Simana sithi heh," which loosely translates to "We sigh, saying oh!" The next line, "Kodw'ibuhlungu," means "Just the pain," emphasizing the intensity of the pain she's feeling.

The chorus of the song consists of the phrase "Ibuhlungu, hayi ibuhlungu" which means "It's painful, very painful." She repeats this line several times throughout the song, underscoring the intensity of the issue that's causing her so much pain. In the final stanza, the singer says "Simana siyahleka," translating to "We laugh at each other." This line adds complexity to the song's emotional state, as laughing could either indicate that she's found a way to cope with the pain, or that she's in denial about it. The overall lyrics of the song express a struggle with pain and difficulty in articulating that struggle, a sentiment that many may relate to in their lives.

Line by Line Meaning

Lendab'ibuhlungu ayihlekisi
There's a painful story that is not easy to tell

Simana sithi heh
We're feeling it, so we say 'heh'

Kodw'ibuhlungu
But it's pain

Ibuhlungu, hayi ibuhlungu
It's painful, oh it's painful

Lendab'ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
There's a painful story (hay, hay, hay, hay)

Ayihlekisi (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
That is not easy to tell (hay, hay, hay, hay)

Simana sithi heh (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
We feel it, so we say 'heh' (hay, hay, hay, hay)

Kodw'ibuhlungu (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
But it's pain (hay, hay, hay, hay)

Simana siyahleka (Hay, hay, hay, hay)
We're laughing it off, but (hay, hay, hay, hay)

Yho, yho, yho,
Oh, oh, oh

Ibuhlungu (Yho, yho, yho, yho, yho)
It's painful (oh, oh, oh, oh, oh)