Phude Phude by Darkie Fiction
There are verses that my grandmother has highlighted in the dog-eared pages of her bible. These verses uplifted me long after the sun visited the other side of our world. Every word and every prayer, every hymn and every chorus I heard in her voice has traveled centuries. These things have embarked on many trips. These things have walked with my grandmother and her grandmothers and now they walk with me.
One thing that reminds me of where I grew up is found in the lyrics I sang at home.
And in their trips around the sun, song lyrics come to me through the euphonious voices of songstresses like Yoza Mnyanda. These lyrics that our minds have written down from the days we spent with our grandmothers come to us through the rhapsody of rappers like Katt Daddy. I am reminded of my grandmother and of the children who shared the boxes our bodies laid in with me in their new release, Phude Phude. I remember home and everything about it when I listen to Darkie Fiction. Home comes to me when Yoza Mnyanda sings, Katt Daddy raps and Darkie Fiction plays on a little speaker.
When home knocked
Home knocked on Friday, the 23rd of April 2021 when Darkie Fiction brought from (their) studio into our corners, Phude Phude.
The music duo who spent their days growing up in the Eastern Cape, sing of the times of days long gone in their new release. The dawn of this nostalgia is a sun that rises with what sounds like the coming together of a people. It sounds like joy. What we hear sounds like a room full of warmth and laughter. It is the sound of the things that walked with my grandmother and now walk with me. Phude Phude is of a time that gifted me the days I spent singing with my grandmother.
In addition, Phude Phude reminds me of when we ran home with the street lights on knowing that there was a warm plate of seven colours waiting for us. And I love how it runs down the memory lane of apologizing to our mothers for forgetting to come home before dark.
By Shoza I Love You Baby
And after home had knocked, the words that accompany the tune of By Shoza I Love You Baby entered with more days of childhood.
Home came to me when the drums of my ears beat to
By shoza I love you baby,
to baby to the sa.
The saa to de yona.
The yona to de meh.
De meh phude phude.
While the drums of my ears beat to the lyrics of Phude Phude’s chorus, the memory of the air’s hands on top-toeing on my skin played too.
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Home, always
There is something inherent in Phude Phude that is inherent in myself. It comes from the deepest parts of who I am. It comes from home and not just my home, but the home of our community too. We are a people who were stripped of our language and found a way to own it. We spun several colours into seven colours. The lyrics of Miss Johnson Had A Baby were woven into By Shoza I Love You Baby. Phude Phude sits us down with By Shoza I Love You Baby and travels to where we come from with us. We have done this with many other songs too and that is what makes us who we are. It is what makes home, home.
Thank you Darkie Fiction for taking me home.
