Southern Rhythms, a six-part musical series, will follow South Africa’s multi-instrumental musician and producer Pops Mohammed as he embarks on a journey to discover the country’s abundant and varied sacred music.
Starting on SABC3 on Sunday 11 December at 10pm, the series will see Mohammed visit various provinces and a spectrum of religious and indigenous communities, engaging them in their environment.
The series is aimed at exploring South Africa’s unity through the diversity of music, religion and culture as well as celebrating our rich and diverse spirituality through performances by leading musicians, interviews with artists, scholars and other experts.
Mohammed’s journey includes taking a look into the sacred sounds of some of the multifarious traditions that make up our diverse nation, we witness him at home, in his studio and on stage, and explore how he proposes to integrate the musical experiences he has into a larger, and even more creative vision.
Pops Mohammed has been leading the battle to retain the indigenous African sounds so they are not overrun by the American pop sounds and on his quest has been joined by numerous African legends including jazz great Moses Khumalo. Mohammed attributes his artistic openness to his childhood growing up in an Indian community near Johannesburg.
His nickname Pops dates back to his childhood enthusiasm for the comic seaman Popeye. The prolific and multi-talented South African singer songwriter has been attracting international attention for almost two decades for his effortless versatility in playing traditional and for his ability to fuse a startling scope of regional African styles with his elegant original compositions.
