Who's da Ras Dumisani Mon?
by Jean Barker
16/11/2009 11:27
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Who's the peaceful Rasta mon who sang our national anthem(s) so badly that even the Springbok team noticed his mistakes?
As usual, no one is taking responsibility for the "disaster" that Sport24 has nicknamed "Anthemgate". Oregan Hoskins, president of the South African Rugby Union is blaming the French Embassy for choosing the singer, the singer is blaming the equipment and Athletics South Africa is denying the equipment had anything to do with it. Ag, what's new?
Ras Dumisani says he sang the Anthem "beautifully"... well that depends if you consider singing the harmony parts instead of the main melody, and ad-libbing the words you couldn't quite remember, "beautiful". Truth be told, Ras messed up - but he provided quality entertainment, and thanks to the web (watch the video clip of him performing the anthem here) will continue to do so for weeks to come.
But who is he? We did some digging and came up with this quick Potted History of Ras Dumisani.
Ras Dumisani is connected by blood to KZN royalty. He recorded his first album, Zululand Reggae, in 1992 (Declic/Buesilver) with the great Mickey Dread (who worked with The Clash) and Dennis Bovell (engineer for LKJ and Alpha Blondy bass player). He was joined by the Afrikhaya ("Africa home") band for his follow up album. He's a popular hire for left-wing political events, and has many fans in France, the United States, England, Holland, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Israel, and West Africa. Yes, that's Lucky Dube with him in the photo above.
He's a well-respected reggae artist on the Parisian and European tour scene (no, really), and is well loved in his native KZN, with various albums and an anthology of best tracks to his name. His roots reggae sound is popular all over the world, and a quick Google reveals him to have been connected to big names like local legend Lucky Dube.
Listen to one of his songs here, or watch this video of him performing live here.
And here's Ras's own music video. It's pretty funny. Not on purpose, of course.
So what's the verdict? Well he's a reasonably good singer, but Dumisani, perhaps it's best to learn the worlds of your national anthem before you stand up in front of the world to sing it. Or learn to lip synch, which from what I can tell from your own music video, isn't one of your big skills, either.