But now it’s 2013 and Friend Within – a mysterious rising star – is releasing his version of ‘Renegade Master’. Fatboy Slim’s remixed version of the track – ‘Renegade Master ’98’ – surpassed this and peaked at number three. It became a major club hit and it peaked at number 11 on the UK singles charts. Roger Mckenzie – who is known under his production alias ‘Wildchild’ – released ‘Renegade Master’ in 1995 with the record label Hi-Life. The housing structures are built from whatever material people can get their hands on, but they’re built strong, and every dirt yard looks as though it has been swept meticulously every day, until they resemble red dirt Zen gardens.īut back to the track. What struck me within minutes was how house-proud the inhabitants of Soweto are. We started out at some painted shacks on a little pot-holed dirt track that had a small, dirty stream of effluence flowing down it. We were shooting guerilla-style with a light and mobile crew, the camera operated on ‘Steadicam’ by Chris Vermaak, who had agreed to be our cinematographer. Having to chase the light, we got to work with the Pantsulas. It was explained to us that the townships were 98% cool, but the acrimonious 2% proved to be a real threat to the team. Questions that arose included: Would there be sufficient security? Were we insured? It turned out that only the cameras were. In the preceding production meetings and briefings of shooting in Soweto, safety was at the top of everyone’s list of importance. He is also the one who wrote the charged-with-energy film, and has the libidinous capacity for fun. We Are Familia’s film director, Craig Moore, an expat South African living in London, is the man who brought the project back to Jo’burg. Perhaps I wasn’t entirely wrong, but rather than angry, Mada was motivated and eager to create change to uplift the community he loves through a cataclysmic depth of talent and imagination that might make the world sit up and take notice of his favoured dance style, isiPantsula. I thought, here is another disaffected youth who is pissed off at the past atrocities and current corruption dancing to a tune of protest at the tragic circumstances the majority of South Africans find themselves in.
When Mada told me ‘I dance as if someone is holding a gun to my head’, I imagined that he’d be angry. Mada had recognised the beat as something his dance crew could relate to, and he was immediately interested in the project we had proposed to him.
He listened to the unreleased remix of ‘Renegade Master’ intently, concentrating wholeheartedly on the sounds emanating from my tiny phone speakers. In the end, it was the track that really hooked him. He had given me the time to pitch our film because I had made the effort to come to his territory and have lunch with him. Mada, who is good looking, slight of frame and has an intensely focused semblance, quickly brushed off any kind of marketing At our introduction I was anxious and awestruck, which made it no less easy to spin a story about offering him exposure, ‘YouTube fame’ and an embarrassingly low artist fee in exchange for his talents. It was here where I had my first encounter with one of South Africa’s most progressive talents – Mada Sthembiso, a dancer of whom I first became aware when watching the filmĪfrican Cypher. As I made my way through a shanty town before emerging into the modern affluence of Orlando and its Maponya Mall, in the back of my mind there remained a niggling fear of townships. Driving in I became aware of the tragically poor living conditions and the lack of infrastructure. Soweto can be described as a city of complex contradictions and various misconceptions.
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