Rock Paper Scissors - Ladysmith Black Mambazo, No Boundaries (Heads Up)

It's probably about time, and this year looks good for South Africa's a cappella group, LadySmith Black Mambazo, writes JOHN KARIUKI

It was released last year to coincide with South Africa's tenth independence anniversary celebrations, and is the only African album in this year's race for the Grammys.

LadySmith Black Mambazo's Raise Your Spirits Higher - Wenyukela has been nominated in the Best Traditional Folk Music category.

Besides, it was also among the top African albums last year and topped the World Music charts compiled by Billboard magazine, which gives it the added advantage of being familiar overseas. And this in addition to the name Mambazo earned themselves for their back-up role in Paul Simon's Grammy-winning, chartbusting album, Graceland, in 1986.

If Mambazo win, it will be their second victory, having first won a Grammy in 1988 for the album Shaka Zulu. The only African group to have received six Grammy nominations, Mambazo also hold the distinction of having won entirely on their own.

All other past African winners have had a foreign hand, starting with Miriam Makeba, the first African to win a Grammy (in 1967) for her album An Evening With ...,

a collaborative work with Harry Belafonte that won in the Jazz Category; 1995 winner Lebo M (Maroke) of South Africa, whose Circle of Life, done jointly with Hans Zimmer, was the Best Soundtrack and featured in the Walt Disney movie, Lion King; and Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure, who was a winner in 1994 for Talking Timbuktu, which he jointly recorded with Ry Cooder, the Canadian jazz guitarist. It won in the Best World Music Album category, which is considered

closer to Western pop than the Traditional Folk category in which Mambazo have been nominated.

It is nine years since that Lebo M Grammy, though there have been numerous nominations, and an award would push the continent's music closer to the mainstream of global music, which is the core of the industry in terms of sales and concert engagements.

But with the shocks and surprises that are the Grammys, Mambazo and their fans will have to wait until it's all over. Last year, for instance, Africa appeared all set to collect a Grammy from either Salif Keita's album, Moffou, or Angelique Kidjo's Black Ivory Soul in the World Music category. However, the voters thought differently.

It was Keita's second disappointment at the awards, having undergone something similar in 1993 with Amen, a critically acclaimed cross-over album produced by keyboard player Joe Zawinul, who had worked out a clever melding of American jazz and Keita's griot style of singing to evolve a unique flavour straddling the two music cultures.

In Moffou, Keita returned to his roots, adopting broad use of drums, the acoustic guitar and accordion to recreate music that sounded as traditional as it was delectable.

Meanwhile, Angelique Kidjo's Black Ivory Soul was an aberration from her usual style that's influenced by her Benin roots in favour of an exploration of the musical links between Benin and Brazil, and more suave in image.

Although Mambazo's style gives them an advantage in the category in which they have been nominated, it places them farther from the mainstream of global music.

But the group has a forthcoming release, No Boundaries, recorded with the English Chamber Orchestra, which is intended to tap into classical music and move it more towards World Music, which is viewed as a bridge between two cultures as opposed to their more roots-inclined folk music.

But so far the World Music category has been dominated by Latin Americans and, occasionally, by Indian musicians whose virtuosity as instrumentalists favours them in this category.

Notably, most of the African musicians who have made it to overseas charts play music leaning towards folk which, though appealing to audiences there, is not necessarily popular at home. Indeed, in terms of general acceptance, the majority of those winning accolades abroad are hardly known in Africa.

It is worth noting that the converse is true: Congolese musicians, who have a huge following in Africa, rarely feature in overseas awards. A classic example is

Lwambo Lwanzo Makiadi (Franco), who undoubtedly remains among the most influential musicians in the world. Years after his death, Makiadi still maintains a presence as re-issues of his recordings find new favour. A second volume of collaborations with Sam Mangwana is on the charts and is just one of several of his re-issues that have been on the charts in the past few months.

Another big seller from the DRC is Papa Wemba, whose preference for overseas audiences once alienated his African fans, but he has been making amends and gaining ground.

Senegal's Youssou N'Dour also found a solution and pursues parallel formats: recording folk-style albums for his European market and Western-inclined pop music for his African audience. But though big abroad, N' Dour has yet to cultivate a real following in Africa like, say, Koffi Olomide.

So, a second Grammy for LadySmith Black Mambazo might earn the group a great deal of prestige and little else. Ultimately, it is a question of relevance and what a Grammy award means to an African in real music terms. And so far, it has only shown that Americans have heard you but the real issue is whether Africa is also listening.