Khumbulani Mudau from Gogobole village has proven that perseverance always pays dividends. After years of practise and lots of patience, he finally fulfilled his dream of playing an instrument and managed to release his debut four-track EP, called Fillicoco, earlier this year with the help of three of his friends.
Mudau (38) has had a passion for music since his teens but had no musical instruments to play. When he finished school and started working in Pretoria, he started saving and finally managed to buy a second-hand guitar for R500, but this did not solve his problem entirely. "I could not get someone to teach me how to play the guitar. I started to play around on it in my spare time, until I felt confident that the notes began to sound right, and that is how I learned to play the guitar," he said.
Fillicoco is the name of the farm where he used to practise playing the guitar, so it has significance for Mudau. The tracks on the EP are titled Kwa-Zulu Natal, Fillicoco, Mbungu waMasase and Ndanduleni.
"I used to listen to System Tazvida (a Zimbabwean musician who died in 1999)'s love songs a lot. This was my favourite genre and my love for this music helped me formulate my own choruses," said Mudau. "My message on this album is that there must be true love between a married man and woman, as this will help married couples to live together in peace," he said.
For copies of Fillicoco, Mudau can be contacted on 060 644 5048, or check his music out on the YouTube channel (Fillicoco).