Xhosa Music

Xhosa music has long been a major part of the music of South Africa, especially in the field of jazz. There are many Xhosa clans, each with their own styles of drumming and dialects.

NoFinish Dywili assisted from 1979 in Africanising local Christian liturgical music and the Ngqoko Women's Cultural Group helped preserve the Xhosa music of the village of Ngqoko, including the married woman's umngqungqo style, danced at the intonjane ceremony of girls' rites of passage. Professor Andrew Tracey, director of the International Library of African Music, commented on "the polyphonic singing, the three types of bow they play (including the uhadi gourd bow) the umngqokolo overtone singing". According to Tracey, the Khoisan had a big influence on this music.