Sibusile Xaba (South Africa): A Sonic Alchemist, Mystic and Storyteller

Charismatic and deeply spiritual, Sibusile Xaba is a guitarist, vocalist, and composer who reshapes maskandi and avant-garde music into an intimate, transformative experience. His artistry is not merely performance—it is an invocation, a communion between sound and spirit, where music becomes a vessel for ancestral storytelling.

Xaba’s vocal style is both ethereal and primal, moving seamlessly between whispered incantations and soaring melodic expressions. His guitar playing, rooted in expressive fingerpicking, echoes the influence of South African legends like Madala Kunene and Dr. Philip Tabane, yet remains uniquely his own—imbued with mythology, improvisational depth, and a spiritual urgency that defies convention.

A Visionary Debut: His debut LP, Open Letter to Adoniah, the first half of a double album project, is a deeply personal and spiritual work—a musical message to his child. Recorded in the serene Magaliesberg Mountains in 2016 under the independent label Mushroom Hour Half Hour, the album was born from a series of revelatory dreams. It is a meditation on life’s interconnectedness with the divine, where sound becomes a bridge between the seen and the unseen.

Honouring the Ancestral Lineage: Xaba’s second album, NGIWU SHWABADA (I Am of SHWABADA), is a dedication to the ancestors—a sonic offering of gratitude for their love, blessings, and guidance. Each song is a conversation with the spirits, channeled into melodies meant to be shared with the world. The album carries the elements of water and the great feminine spirit, reflecting the cyclical nature of life and the deep-rooted power of ancestral wisdom.

Pushing Boundaries: IzangoMa and Collaborative Explorations

Beyond his solo work, Xaba is one half of IzangoMa, a critically acclaimed 15-piece ensemble based in Pretoria, South Africa, co-led with DJ/producer Ash K. Their debut album, released by Brownswood in May 2023, is a synth- and keys-driven exploration of Afrobeat, Afro-jazz, Afro-funk, future-jazz, and psychedelia. With high-energy percussion, free-flowing vocal chants, and layered horn arrangements, IzangoMa’s music serves as both a celebration and a remedy—offering dance as a form of resistance against the fragmentation and loneliness of modern life.

Xaba’s latest duo project, ESINAM & Sibusile Xaba, is a meeting of kindred musical spirits. In collaboration with Belgian-Ghanaian artist Esinam, the duo weaves rhythms, grooves, and ancestral influences into a hypnotic, trance-like experience. Their music transcends time, bridging the past and future through vocal chanting and intricate rhythmic patterns. Their debut album will be released in the April 2025.

Sibusile Xaba’s music defies classification. While drawing from maskandi, malombo, desert blues, and jazz, he reinterprets these traditions through his own lens—creating something ancient yet otherworldly, deeply rooted yet boundless.

More than just a musician, Xaba is a conduit for something greater—a sonic mystic whose work expands the possibilities of South African music while remaining profoundly personal and evocative. Whether performing solo or in collaboration, his presence is magnetic, his sound transformative, his message universal.

Press:

"This music is extraordinary" – Gilles Peterson (BBC Radio)

"Xaba's intricately fingerpicked patterns produce emotional warmth and rich texture, and he brings an abundance of heart and complete spirit commitment as he sings, laughs, declaims and weeps over the tracks" – The Wire

“Une musique bien enracinée [qui] nous laisse comme en apesanteur”. – Le Monde newspaper

“Super deep sounds on this wonderfully addictive album... Don't miss out... Don't be late Don't wait music you need.” – Jon More (Coldcut / Co-founder of Ninja Tune)

“This blew me away, punched me in the gut the minute I heard this cut”. – Anthony Valadez, KCRW Radio

“A hard-spinning mix of soulful vocals, abstract synth melodies laid over thumping electro grooves, lushly orchestrated horns and vocals, and so, so , so much percussion” - Stereogum

“A truly remarkable pan-genre feast of unwieldy creativity” - Clash

“An exciting, experimental new collective” - Notion

“IzangoMa, from South Africa, pours everything it has learned from two hemispheres into ‘Ngo Ma’ - New York Times

Performance Highlights

• Roskilde Festival, Denmark

• Le Guess Who, Holland

• Jazz Fest Berlin, Germany

• African Music Days, Germany

• Banlieues Bleues, France

• Tribu Festival, France

• BabelMed XP, France

• Druga Godba Festival, Slovenia

• Clandestino Festival, Sweden

• SuperSonic Jazz Fest, Holland

• Total Refreshment Center, London - United Kingdom

• Port Fairy Folk Festival, Australia

• Mullumbimby Music Festival, Australia

• MTN Bushfire Festival, Eswatini

• Basha Uhuru, South Africa

• Music in Africa ACCES Conference, Ghana

In addition to playing key shows in Europe and Australia, Sibusile Xaba has always had a Pan African focus with multiple tours through East Africa (Kenya & Tanzania) and Southern Africa (South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, eSwatini and Botswana).

Activism

Sibusile Xaba is not only a musician but is also a cultural and environmental activist, leading us back to mother earth with a focus on healing the soul and body by living in one with the environment. He has a plot of land in Khosi Bay on the border of Mozambique in South Africa, where he is working to regenerate the land, to build food forests with biodiversity, hosting residences to share knowledge on Indigenous farming methods for both food production and medicinal purposes and the importance of preserving our planet for future generations.

He is an ambassador for the Wilderness Leadership School a foundation based in the Netherlands, in 2024 he performed a gala fundraiser in Amsterdam to raise awareness and money for their projects.

Online:

http://www.akumagency.com/artists/#/sibusile/

https://www.instagram.com/sibusilexaba/

https://www.facebook.com/xabasibusile/

https://sibusilexaba.bandcamp.com/

CONTACTS

Management and Bookings

Jess White

Akum Agency

E: jess@akumagency.com

M: +27 64 128 2045