Ladysmith Black Mambazo, South Africa's "ambassadors of song" will perform its musical program, "The Long Walk to Freedom" at Chico's Laxson Auditorium Friday night.

The show is being presented by Chico Performances, which also brought the group to town for a Chico World Music Festival appearance in 2000.

Founded in 1964 under the leadership of Joseph Shabalaba, the group's music was born during the apartheid years. The word "apartheid" literally means "separateness" in Afrikaans, one of South Africa's 11 official languages. During that period of history, apartheid laws divided people into one of three racial groups, white, Bantu (or black Africans) and "colored" (or people of mixed descent), spelling out where each could live, and what kinds of education and occupations each could pursue.

In a phone interview, Ladysmith's manager, Albert Mazibuko, talked about the musical group that for more than 30 years has combined the intricate rhythms and harmonies of their native South African musical traditions to the sounds and sentiments of Christian gospel music.

According to Mazibuko, Zulu men, driven off their land, were forced to find jobs in the cities and mines, living in single sex hostels far from their families. To maintain contact with their homeland, they invented a kind of singing and dancing called isicathamiya (is-cot-a-me-ya), meaning "on tip toe" descended from traditional Zulu stomping.

"Our songs are mostly sung in our native language, Zulu," he says. "We obviously do sing in English as well and sometimes add in words from other South African languages, such as Xhosa (pronounced "koza--a tongue click sound at the beginning) or Sutu."

A radio broadcast in 1970 opened the door to their first record contract, the beginning of collection of recordings that currently includes more than 40 albums.

In the mid-1980s, Paul Simon visited South Africa and incorporated Ladysmith's rich tenor/alto/bass harmonies into his "Graceland" album, a 1986 recording that is considered one of the first to introduce world music to mainstream audiences.

A year later, Simon produced Ladysmith's first U.S. release, "Shaka Zulu," which won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album.

Since then, the group has scored six more Grammy nominations, most recently for their 1999 album, "Live from Royal Albert Hall."

Says Mazibuko, "With the African world being influenced more and more by the Western world we don't want our people to forget their own culture. We have dedicated ourselves to promoting the Zulu culture by traveling around the world, making CDs, and spreading our voices for our nation, to keep a positive focus."

Ladysmith has recorded with numerous other artists, including Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Julia Fordham, George Clinton and Ben Harper.

Their film work includes a featured appearance in Michael Jackson's "Moonwalker" video and Spike Lee's "Do It A Cappella."

Ladysmith provided soundtrack material for Sean Connery's film, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," Disney's "The Lion King, Part II" as well as Eddie Murphy's "Coming To America," Marlon Brando's "A Dry White Season," and James Earl Jones' "Cry The Beloved Country."

A recent film documentary titled "On Tip Toe: Gentle Steps to Freedom, the story of Ladysmith Black Mambazo," was nominated for an Academy Award.

Between extensive worldwide touring and their recording schedule, tragedy struck the group in 2002 when Nellie Shabalala, Joseph's wife of 30 years, was murdered by an unknown masked gunman outside their church in South Africa.

Instead of letting this terrible incident take the group into a negative space, Shabalala and the rest of Ladysmith used it to develop the ideas and songs that would become its latest CD, "Raise Your Spirit Higher."

Mazibuko says, "The message we sought to express was for people to think about what type of person they are in the worst of times. It's easy to be good and nice to others when you are happy and life is wonderful. But who are you when you experience hardship or tragedy? Are you still a good person? Are you still treating others as you should? It's during this hardship that we need to raise ourselves to a higher place. We need to be better than we are when things are good. That is when your true self is determined. Please, in times of tragedy we all need to raise ourselves higher."

Ask about the groups' current, "Long Walk to Freedom" performances, Mazibuko says, "In South Africa it wasn't very long ago that 90 percent of the people were not free. We could not vote. We could not go to certain places or work in certain jobs. Those times are done and we are raising a new country. This show is celebrating our country and cultures."

Performing with Ladysmith Black Mambazo on this tour is South African guitarist, percussionist, composer, singer and political activist, Vusi Mahlasela.

"This is the first step in our desire to share more of our homelands music with people abroad," says Mazibuko. "We want to expand our shows into a festival for South Africa, with other groups, dancers and even craft people. We have been recording local township groups for a new series of CDs we will put out called, Ladysmith Black Mambazo presents our friends and neighbors, music from the townships of South Africa.' This will be a way for many unknown groups to be heard. Then we can bring some of them on tour with us."

-Phil Reser