Soweto-based band Urban Village have today released a new single and video, ‘Dindi’, the final track to emerge from their debut album ‘Udondolo’, out now via Parisian label Nø Førmat! (home to Oumou Sangaré, Blick Bassy & Mélissa Laveaux). Marrying the day-to-day experiences of black South Africans with ebullient elements of traditional Zulu music, Urban Village is the alias of four experimental musicians all born & raised in the township of Soweto at the tail end of Apartheid; singer/flautist Tubatsi Mpho Moloi, guitarist Lerato Lichaba, drummer Xolani Mtshali and bassist Simangaliso Dlamini.
A call-and-answer urging for black pride, the fizzy, irrepressible ‘Dindi’ arrives alongside a quietly powerful video shot by rising South African talent Justice Mukheli. Speaking about the causes that prompted them to write the track, Urban Village say; “‘Dindi’ – more accurately put Dark-Dindi – was a colloquial term, which describes people who are dark skinned, as to address Black Pride. For this was a necessary term to be used as an awakening for people being raised and brought up under a certain oppression, where all the dark-skinned people, especially young women, would have attempted to bleach their skin in order to be accepted as beautiful. The song promotes people of all colours to be proud in the very skin that they are in, no matter the shade and texture. The other connotation we get from the song Dindi is that the South African musical progression called the 1-4-5… So, the way it was played it was colloquially termed “Dindi” when listening to the bass groove alliterations, it would sound like you saying the word “Dindi”.
Speaking about the process of creating the track’s accompanying video, Justice Mukheli says; “Working on Dindi was a beautiful experience, from creative process to final production. Being able to contribute on Urban Village’s project celebrating black women was an honour because of the times we are in. We need to celebrate women more, protect them more and be a safe space emotionally for them, beyond just the comfort and safety we show to those who are close to us and in our immediate surroundings.”