Record - VG+

Cover - G+

This fascinating South African educational and cultural release documents traditional African dance forms performed on the gold mines of Southern Africa. Produced by Sound Pics Enterprises in Johannesburg, the package combines an EP record featuring music, songs and spoken commentary with a set of 16 full-colour slides, creating a multimedia presentation designed for educational, cultural and historical study.

Far more than a conventional music release, African Dances serves as a valuable cultural record, preserving traditional dance practices and performances from several Southern African ethnic groups. The combination of recorded commentary, authentic music and accompanying photographic slides makes this an unusual and increasingly scarce piece of South African social and cultural history.

The inclusion of the original slide set significantly enhances collectibility, as many surviving copies are incomplete.

Genre

African Traditional, Ethnographic, Field Recording, Educational, Cultural Documentation

Contents

EP Record

Music, songs and descriptive commentary from the gold mines of South Africa.

Included Colour Slides

Features traditional dances including:

1. Bhaca – Isicathulo
2. Sotho – Mohobelo
3. Xhosa – Amatshotsho (or similar traditional dance)
4. Shangaan/Tsonga – Makwaya
5. Zingili Clan – Ndlamu
6. Swazi – Ndlamu
7. Pedi – Muchongolo
8. Chopi – Ngodo

(Complete original slide set of 16 colour transparencies included.)

Historical Significance

During the twentieth century, South Africa’s mining industry brought together workers from many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds across Southern Africa. Traditional dances remained an important part of cultural identity and community life within the mining compounds. Releases such as this were created to document and preserve these traditions for educational institutions, museums and cultural organisations.

Today these recordings provide an important historical snapshot of traditional performance practices that might otherwise have gone undocumented.

Pressing & Collectibility Notes

South African ethnographic and educational recordings are produced in relatively small quantities compared with commercial music releases. Complete examples containing both the record and the original slide set are considerably less common than the record alone.

The combination of cultural documentation, mining history and South African heritage makes this an attractive item for collectors of Africana, ethnographic recordings and South African historical material.