Kwela is Kwaai

We are almost half-way through the A to Z Blog Challenge *going laaik a boeing*

Today's Southafricanism is:

Kwela [pronounced kw-eh-la].  A popular form of township music from the 1950s, based on the pennywhistle, a cheap and simple instrument taken up by street performers.  The term kwela

comes from the isiZulu for "get up", though in township slang it also referred to the police vans, the kwela-kwela.   It is said that the young men who played the pennywhistle on street corners also acted as lookouts to warn those drinking in illegal shebeens of the arrival of the cops.

Check out Lemmy Mabaso who was famous for this type of music.