For 40 years now, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been making music to give strength and hope, to lift souls and inspire wills to carry on.  Now, the South African ensemble, which sings next week at The Carolina Theatre, has produced a recording titled “Raise Your Spirit Higher.” The name has its good aspects, and some not so.

On the upside, there is no more apartheid.  The CD’s release corresponds with the 10^th anniversary of South Africa’s termination of its radical separation laws.  On the downside, these last years have brought some personal tragedies for members of the group.  On the whole, there is “wenyukela” – a Zulu word that is the ablum’s subtitle.

“Literally, it means ‘he climbed the mountain,’” said Albert Mazibuko, one of the group’s founding members.  “It’s talking about Jesus, when he went up the mountain with his disciples and they sat down and he taught them.”  The group used the word, he said, “Because we were needing more – something that was going to lift us up.  We were facing more problems.”

In 1991, Headman Shabalala – another original Ladysmith singer, brother of group founder Joseph Shabalala – was killed by an off-duty policeman.  Two years ago, Nellie Shabalala, Joseph’s wife of 28 years, was murdered outside their church.

Loss brought despair.  Music brought hope.  Singing at Nellie’s funeral, Ladysmith Black Mambazo experienced their music’s power to heal.

“Music giving us strength to go forward,” Mazibuko said, speaking by telephone from a tour stop in Annapolis, MD.

The new CD, on the Heads Up International label of Cleveland, Ohio, includes a song – “Tribute” – composed by the Shabalala’s grandsons for their grandmother’s memory.  It is sung in English, as is “Fak’ Ibhande” – a Don’t-Drink-and-Drive song written for a road safety campaign.  The rest of the album is mostly sing in Zulu, but even without the topical lyrics, the songs are haunting and calm.

“A smoothing, meditative quality,” a Fredickburg, Va. Reviewer described Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s music, “that transcends denominations and creeds.”

Formed in the early 1960s in Ladysmith, a town in the KwaZulu Natal Province between Johannesburg and Durban, the group sings a traditional music called “isicathamiya,” which developed among black miners working far from their homes.

According to the group’s publicity, its name makes reference to its early winning ways in singing contests.  “Black” connotes strong oxen, and “mambazo” means “ax” – put together, they refer to chopping down the competition.  By 1970, Ladysmith Black Mambazo was popular all over southern Africa.  In 10 more years, it had released about 20 albums and toured to Europe.

American singer Paul Simon “heard a tape of the group singing in Germany and recruited them to both sing on his 1986 “Graceland” album and tour the U.S. with him.  The result was a Rolling Stone cover and even more attention back home.  Since then, Ladysmith Black Mambazo has released another two dozen albums, sung for heads of state and with stars of rock, appeared at the Royal Albert Hall and on the television shows “Sesame Street” to “Saturday Night Live.”

Meantime, things were changing almost unbelievably in South Africa.

“It’s like a dream to me,” Mazibuko said.  “To me, growing up there, it’s a great deal.  To go wherever you want to go, to so whatever you want to do, it’s a great deal.”

Black South Africans today own businesses in places the were not even allowed to walk in apartheid time, he said.  Joseph Shabalala was born just outside the town of Ladysmith, because only whites were allowed within the city limits after dark.  Now, “the schools are open to everybody.”

And, Mazibuko said, “It’s in your mind that something has been changed.”

Laws have changed, customs may be changing, and problems have changed, too.  Crime rates in some parts of the country are alarming.  Billboards warn citizens that AIDS is rampant.  Political stability is shaky, the economy need foreign capital – one Ladysmith song, “Seligelesthu Sonke,” invites the rest of the world “to build, invest and buy” in South Africa, now that the country is back in the hands of those to whom it belongs.

“Problems,” Mazibuko said.  “Some of the problems are not going, anyway.  In the whole world.”

“The Bible, I look at it all the time to get my inspiration,” he said.  “Satan was thrown into this world, so every time there will be problems, but those are not to stop us, but for us to overcome.”

Ladysmith Black Mambazo has been called a “national treasure” and a bearer of tradition, representing “the majesty of South African music.”  That’s a lot to live up to, but Mazibuko thinks at least some of the flattery is accurate.

“When they say we are an inspiration for South African music, I agree with them,” he said.  “When I meet people who have been exiled, the say out music has been an inspiration to them.” In jails, in refugee camps, in foreign lands, “It was giving them the hope that things will be fine.”

“Even in out compositions from the beginning,” Mazibuko continued, “we sang about our heroes who have some great things.  We sing every good thing that is happening … helping people to move on with their lives.  So even now, out music is always encouraging.  Even in the new album, we are reminding people we are free now.”