ISIKOKEYANA... a diminutive form of the adverb isikokela, from the Nguni kokela ʻencircleʼ, ʻsurroundʼ. During the last century, the name isikokeyana was given to a type of alcoholic beverage clandestinely brewed and consumed by shantytown-dweller s of South Africaʼs segregated urban areas. The brew was placed in the centre of a small circle of men … out of sight of disapproving passersby and police. As in traditional beer-drinking, a tin-vessel containing the brew was passed around using both hands, in the anticlockwise dimension referred to by the Nguni as ʻthe hand for eating withʼ. If found guilty by a court of law - whether drinking or selling ʻskokiaanʼ - those sentenced were routinely sold to farms as cheap labour to har vest potato-fields.

I founded SKOKIANA in 1991 as a quartet playing in the jazz-influenced township tradition. The original members were myself on guitar, the late Leonard Rachabane on tenor saxophone, Bongani Sokhela on bass and Jabu Dube on drums. At the time we were all music students at the then Univer sity of Natal, Durban. The talent that sustains SKOKIANA is traditionally culled from the universityʼs music student community. At the end of their studies member s invariably depart for Johannesburgʼs famously beckoning musical horizons, leaving thus Durbanʼs shores, me and SKOKIANA behind. As a dedicated coastal person I always remain and recruit younger players of promise.