A Shoutout to Our Friend Zongoboid
A lyrical genius, a world traveller, a disgustingly talented pianist, a gritty South African, a truly fearless human being with a huge heart, and one of the few people we’ve been lucky enough to meet on our travels and have continuously stayed in touch with ever since… Who could it be?! ZONGOBOID!
I’ve been thinking about South Africa recently, and wondering when I am going to start writing posts about the three months we spent out there. But I cannot think about South Africa, without the legendary Zongoboid being at the forefront of my mind. For this reason, I’m writing an entire blog to introduce you to this wonderful person and artist, and share some of her musical genius with you all.
The first stint of our unconventional living was back in 2022, when we gave up our lovely flat in Exeter, Devon, and moved to Cape Town where we’d work remotely for our UK employers and live life like locals in the legislative capital city of South Africa. We stayed for the first five weeks in an apartment right in the thick of all the action, just off Long Street in the City Center.
It wasn’t long before we ended up in a cosy little bar/hotel called the Kimberley Hotel. It was here that we first set eyes on our soon-to-be new friend. Zongoboid was wandering around the bar looking for an extension lead she’d left there the previous night while busking. We didn’t pay much attention as we were caught up in the new atmosphere and were overly excited about the fact we were in a bar where people could smoke without anyone batting an eyelid! This was our first experience of indoor smoking since the UK ban in 2007.
Anyway, with the lead found, Zongo set up shop by the door and started to play. Wow! We were truly blown away. She was playing the keyboard better than I think I’ve ever heard anyone play - certainly the best busker by far. Then she started to sing. We soon realised that she wasn’t singing covers, but her own original stuff. These lyrics we were hearing were so profound, and we were in total awe of Zongoboid from that moment on.
We annoyingly didn’t have any cash with us to tip her, but we couldn’t let her go without us telling her how fantastic she was and offering her a drink at the very least. All she wanted was a bowl of chips (fries) - an example of how humble she is - and with that, the chips were on their way!
During our chat, Zongoboid mentioned she was going to be playing a gig the following night at The Dubliner on Long Street. Well, it was only right around the corner from our apartment! We were delighted that she’d be playing a gig so close to where we were staying, and ventured out that night to hear more of this wonderful music. We hadn’t been to The Dubliner yet, so we didn’t know what the atmosphere was usually like in there, but when we got there, it was only the bar staff and Zongoboid in the whole place! We later found out that the bar is frequently pretty empty, especially through the week. But anyway, how lucky were we to not only get to see her perform again, but to now have pretty much a private gig!
When Zongo spotted us, she was so excited and she gave us a little shout-out down the mic. During her breaks, she came and sat with us, and we got to know each other more. We knew then, that this was more than just a performer and some punters - a friendship was in the making, and we exchanged numbers. She told us when she’d be back in The Dubliner, and we of course went to watch her again and again.
As I mentioned earlier, we only stayed in that apartment for the first five weeks, so the time came to move on. We moved out to a small surfing town called Muizenberg - it’s still in Cape Town, but not within the City Centre - it’s a train ride away. As luck would have it, only a week or so into us living there, Zongoboid secured an interview for a regular gig at a local art gallery in Muizenberg! We met up for a drink after her meeting and she shared the delightful news that she’d got the gig!! Fantastic. This was a weekly event where she’d play piano in the cafe part of the gallery, and her music could be heard as people walked around exploring the wonderful artwork on display.
I went and watched her, again, and thought to myself that this is a perfect compliment to the artwork. It made me want to stand and stare at the pictures for even longer - especially as most of the work was abstract, Zongoboid’s music helped me focus on the intricate details of each painting and form my own ideas of what I was viewing. The audio/visual artistry was so powerful. It was a far better experience than the deafening silence of a lot of art galleries you go to, for sure!
In Muizenberg, we were renting a little bungalow in the Marina Da Gama area, and our garden looked onto the beautiful waterway that connected all the fancy houses and bungalows around it. We felt so posh! Anyway, the bungalow came with a BBQ so we thought we’d better make use of it and we invited Zongoboid over after her gig. We were so happy when she agreed to come over, and off we went to the supermarket to pick up all the goodies we’d promised her. Well, at that time in Cape Town, there was a food shortage! The shelves were bare!! We managed to get a couple of floppy carrots, sorry looking asparagus, some mushrooms to make some kind of stuffed mushroom concoction, some salad-bits, sweet potatoes and a few other things to bulk it out as much as we could.
Tora is head chef in this relationship, and was so worried that the food wouldn’t be up to scratch. I tried to offer reassurance but it fell on deaf ears as Tora’s standards are too high. Anyway, as I already suspected, Zongo was absolutely thrilled with the food Tora had managed to put on the table, and enjoyed every last bite! We had another great evening and this was where we got to know Zongo the person, rather than Zongoboid the performer. She blew us away yet again, but this time with her stories and knowledge, rather than her musical talents. She’d lived in London and travelled around the UK on her own, and had lived around different parts of South Africa as well - namely East London (on the Eastern Cape of South Africa, not the UK) where she was from.
Her stories shocked us as she so casually shared tales of times she’d been in such frightening situations and had managed to get out of them by just seeing these people as human beings, knowing what buttons to press and managing to press them in the nick of time. I won’t go into detail, nor share all the stories, but one that stands out in my mind was when she got out of a terrifying situation by realising where the guy was from and saying “God” in his language - by doing this, he took a step back and ran off. Under such horrifying circumstances, how anyone’s mind goes to quickly remembering what “God” is in another language absolutely blows me away. I think this is where she won the title of the coolest person I’d met in my life, and it’ll take a special kind of person to contend with that.
Zongo stayed over at ours a few times during our time in Muizenberg, and we always had a great time together. We’d have dinner together - I once made my speciality vegan chilli for her, which she loved - then share drinks, stories and laughs outside on our terrace until it was time for bed. Zongo would set up camp on our couch and we’d retire to our room, then in the morning it was time for Tora and I to set up our laptops again and Zongo would head off and go about her day.
Whenever we spent time with Zongoboid, we’d part ways feeling so rich with new knowledge, and so full of joy just from talking to her and hearing more and more about her amazing life. I usually hate the word amazing, because it gets thrown around far too often, but in this case, her life has been truly amazing.
We really hope we can get back over to Cape Town and meet her again, or find her floating around somewhere else on this great Earth of ours, but in the meantime, we’re enjoying her sporadic WhatsApp messages with life-updates, her words of encouragement on our Social Media posts, and more recently her musical updates from her Patreon profile.
If you enjoy what you read and hear, then why not show your support by donating as little as £1 a month? With this membership, you will get exclusive updates and information that she is not sharing on her public channels. But if not, then just enjoy the music on her channels below - particularly the lyrics - and follow her to see what genius material she puts out next.
Zongoboid has recently been playing gigs around the Muizenberg area including The Commons, Ali’s Pizza Shop, Cattle Baron in Simon's Town's Harbour Bay Mall and many more. So if you’re in the Cape Town area, watch out for her upcoming shows and go see some true talent. The vocal sound quality does get lost a little in the recordings, because of background noise and the piano volume, so seeing her in-person is way better. If not, I urge you to read her lyrics along with the songs, she is an incredible songwriter and I’d hate for this to be overlooked.
On top of everything else I’ve mentioned about Zongoboid, she’s an environmental warrior. Please enjoy one of her protest songs that I’ve chosen based on the lyrics and incredibly important message.
The caption of this, in Zongoboid’s words, is “A song from Zongoboid's original music collection. This song forms part of the protest against seismic surveys and oil exploration projects situated very close to coastal areas and the urban built environment. Not least the irrevocable damage done to the people who live there, marine life and the natural environment.”
Lots of love and success to you, Zongoboid, from your two Rosemaries x