An against all odds story of an African woman in a patriarchal world, sacrificing everything to follow her musical dream and charts a revolutionary path from rural Kwa Zulu Natal to the top of World Music. From an early career singing covers to a deeply authentic original artist merging ancient and future, Mam Busi Mhlongo is a voice of the ancestors and a musical light with the power to heal.

Busi Mhlongo is an African woman in a patriarchal world. She sacrifices everything to follow her musical dream and against all odds charts a revolutionary path from rural Kwa Zulu Natal to the top of World Music. From an early career singing covers to a deeply authentic original artist merging ancient and future, she is the voice of the ancestors and a leading light in the transformation to the new South Africa.

The opening act Ubizo (a calling to music) is the early years of her musical awakening from the churches, the popular records. A young girl chasing the music all the way to the biggest stages of jazz and theatre and a hit song “My Boy Lollypop.” In act 2 (Ukuvuma – alignment to her calling) she is running from her suffering and towards her dreams. Taking refuge from South Africa she lives and works on three continents, learning her craft, paying her does. A scared illness, cervix cancer triggers her great change in life. Guided by dreams she leaves exile and returns to Durban Kwa Zulu Natal (via Lesotho) to become the musical Twasa – the initiate into the ancient mysteries of Zulu musical culture. The third act Sangoma (healer) is the rise of Queen of African music. Busi is a master performer integrating her traditional musical heritage with the highlife and world music of music. She comes to the world’s attention with the Urban Zulu album and tours it worldwide alongside the emergence of the miracle peaceful transformation of the new South Africa. Cancer returns friends, public broadcaster and community step into help. But at age 62 she is gone to soon. In an exciting epilogue Contemporaries, colleagues, activists, grandchildren and musical children unite for the re-awakening and re-release of previously never before heard recordings.

Urban Zulu the Movie has growing support from Busi’s family, trustees, friends, colleagues and musical children. The Mhlongo and Khumalo families and her Inanda Community, her Testimonial Trust and the producers of her albums believe strongly that a critically acclaimed documentary does justice to this profound legacy. Since the development support of the National Film and Video Foundation in 2023 the project has gathered tremendous momentum and new partnerships with Emmy award winning director Rehad Desai, Sunshine Cinema and Inanda FM in South Africa and Spirit of Africa director Ton van der Lee, Submarine Films, and Movies that Matter in Holland.

A real time documentation of key protagonists in arts culture and heritage communicate wisdom, knowledge and healing through joy. An engaging edu-doccie style combining archives, interviews, live music that embraces cultural heritage and returns it to the community.

Heavily insightful new interviews and recordings combine with audio visual music and heritage archives to reveal the education from African oral history and heritage. Compositions, repertoire and approaches, both ancient and futuristic enlighten seekers to a new form of music learning in South Africa.

iMbizo yamaKhono is a gathering to extend the legacy of South African musical excellence beyond limitations. The preservation and promotion new sounds, styles and approaches to self-expression is a multiplied through gatherings of the arts. iMbizo's bring people. In South Africa interdependence, coming together is an ancient way of life described in the philosophy of ubuntu.

In this expansive Afrocentric quality free music education Web Series, short music education documentaries profile star performers, composers and wisdom keepers. Each education documentary is accompanied with a Pre-Task and Post-Task worksheet engaging the student in further research and musical learning beyond the documentary. A bonus question facilitates knowledge and skills to be shared in an inspired, collaborative and innovative way. iMbizo yamaKhono is perfectly suited to South African syllabus grades 10-12, bridging course to university and as resources for national libraries and archives.

Key themes are agency and action in the creative process. Insight to philosophy, economy, spiritual practice, indigenous knowledge systems, music, healing, cultural memory, general knowledge, creative economy and cultural activism is outcomes based both to syllabus and career. In this e-learning, e-music course we are interactive, participatory, provocative and rely on music to be heard and played, on photos and images, on audio-visual media and on inspiration to carry the message across.

Born in 1986 and repatriated to South Africa in 2022, Jazz Against Apartheid is a multi-year momentum building initiative bringing agency to multiple voices and community. In partnership with community centres, the restoration of this cultural memory becomes an innovative initiative for freedom from all perspectives. A complete archive of 25 years of Exile History, a united effort to impact equal access to opportunity, education, cultural roots and memory.

Culture is a wheel of understanding one another or telling a story that cannot otherwise be told as a collective. Both Germany and South Africa have very violent histories. We need to learn from the past and arts and music is the very backdrop of these era’s. In the struggle against apartheid, it was arts and music that supported it, moved people together and it accelerated the necessary transformation. Like jazz musicians are the narrators of our current issues and our current times, they were the narrators of those times too.

In 2021 President Cyril Ramaphosa bestowed the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo in silver on Jurgen Leinhos for his commitment and determination for standing by the oppressed and fighting for their cause as an anti-apartheid activist. This recognition opened the gateway to bring Dyani’s legacy and Jazz Against Apartheid home to its roots in the Eastern Cape. His first Homecoming after exile was in a body bag in 1986 but his legacy known as Jazz Against Apartheid was now coming home. German activist Leinhos had preserved his culural memory, so as to "save this art of exile from oblivion with the music of Johnny Dyani. In our project Jazz against Apartheid we therefore also see a key for the cultural memory of South Africa.”

Key themes include Legacy of exile, heritage, co-operation and collaboration. The empathy, compassion and musical cross-fertilisation between South Africa and European musicians is a means to overcoming shared challenges of oppression, suppression and depression. Under the theme of Imvuselelo, a re-awakening to the richness of the cultural history, highly professional international musicians from abroad collaborate with young artists from underserved communities. Future talents are nurtured and developed in music through “Nachwuchsförderung.” This is the conscious practice of transferring societal values, knowledge and skills to the next generation through workshops and mentorship. Filmed, recorded and documented in Johannesburg, Eastern Cape, Frankfurt, the profiling the legends of South African jazz history and heritage is a legacy that may inspire a cultural exchange of community centres, emerging and professional musicians.