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Singing in her Xhosa mother tongue, Msaki's
lilting voice aims to capture the sadness and disappointment
felt by many after the showdown between police and strikers at
the Marikana platinum mine 110 kms (68 miles) northwest of
Johannesburg.
Forty-four people died there in the most violent police
crackdown since the end of white minority rule.
'Platinumb Heart Beating' was released at the end of last year.
The title is a play on words, referring to South Africa's
platinum belt but also to "the emotional state of numbness" that
many felt after witnessing such police brutality, she said.
"The first song I wrote was 'Blood, Guns and Revolutions' which
was about Marikana and the platinum belt," she told Reuters TV
in an interview. "It seemed fitting. That was the moment that
got me moving to make an album of protest."
Among those killed in what has become known as the "Marikana
massacre" were 34 miners whom police shot dead at the Lonmin
mine. For many South Africans, it seemed to dash hopes that the
violent state repression of protests had been relegated to their
ugly apartheid past.
August this year marks the 10th anniversary of the massacre.
An investigation into the deaths released by then President
Jacob Zuma blamed Lonmin, the police and trade unions for the
killings.
Msika's songs also feature some household names in South
Africa's dance music scene, including DJ Black Coffee, Kabza De
Small and rapper Focalistic.
(Reporting by Taurai Maduna,; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by
Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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