BCUC: Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness. Indigenous funk, hip hop consciousness and punk rock energy from Soweto, South Africa.
“We bring fun and emo-indigenous Afro psychedelic fire from the hood,” says vocalist Kgomotso Mokone.
A stone’s throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organised the escape of the most wanted anti-Apartheid activists of Soweto, BCUC rehearses in a shipping container-turned-community restaurant, where their indomitable outspokenness echoes in a whole new way. Like its elders, Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness sees its music as a hedonistic trance, but also as a weapon of political and spiritual liberation.
The seven-piece band has been mesmerising audiences locally and globally with its indigenous funk and high-energy performances that have fast made it one of South Africa’s most successful musical exports. Artistic heirs to Philip “Malombo” Tabane and Batsumi, they give contemporary voice to the ancestral traditions of indigenous peoples.
Taking the listener on an epic journey, they tackle the harsh realities of the voiceless, especially the plight of the uneducated workers at the bottom of society. BCUC taps into the elusiveness of the spirit world of ancestors by which they are inspired. The Africa portrayed by BCUC is not poor, but rich in tradition, rituals and beliefs.
