on what little remained of their European tour when this year began. All the venues and festivals that had booked them had cancelled, save the Paris Sons d’hiver festival, where both acts played to a full house.
“No one knows what to do,” said The Brother Moves On’s Siya Mthembu. He has been back and forth across Europe over the past year and was one of the artists selected for The South African Jazz Songbook, a Marcus Wyatt-conducted ensemble at the Royal Albert Hall in London. “It’s heavy man, I had to have that conversation with my kid before I left, about why I had to go. And it’s not even a made-up thing. I had to go because I need to pay her school fees. I told her the whole situation.” The global connectedness of issues suggests there are greater powers at play, ones beyond what any one set of people, regardless of how organised they are, can control.
“There are different scenes in South Africa. Someone like Msaki or Robot Boii, it’s different for them because the fees they’re getting paid to perform — because they’re mainstream artists — are really big. So, touring for them is sustainable still. It’s a pessimistic view, but true. All struggle is connected and we can no longer afford to separate issues — fixing one thing requires that everything else be fixed. This is what the post-Covid moment is revealing to us.Mthembu reveals he’s in transition mode and looking to study towards his master’s degree. He also acknowledges he doesn’t have the privilege to make that choice and not consider the other members of The Brother Moves On.