Very little is known of the late guitarist David Ngcobo, who was a keeper of a stark and foreboding maskandi sound
Restlessness was Mlahleni David Ngcobo’s essential gesture. Stubborn and immensely gifted, his boyhood desire was to sing and tell the stories of the KwaZulu-Natal sugarcane belt through his guitar. This he would later do with distinction over two decades and dominate the Radio Zulu airwaves , singing the folk songs rooted in a threatened Zulu heritage.
Ngcobo first left home at 13 to work in a nearby sugarcane field whose white owner was commonly known as Madlebe. This is when he found an outlet in music, first strumming an oil-can guitar he had made himself. “The traditional guitar was a big thing in the sugarcane belt. I was introduced to styles from Nongoma in the north, the Eastern Cape, and many places. I knew the guitar was in my blood.”
Ngcobo believes a series of mishaps for almost three decades can be seen within this existential context. “I have survived an assassination [attempt] and an electrocution accident, thanks to God and my ancestors.” In 1963 he left home to work as a gardener in Durban. He had an accidental encounter with Ntamoyenkunzi Mchunu, a leading maskandi artist at the time. “Destiny called. I saw him by chance and followed him as he played his guitar. Ntamoyenkunzi then stopped and asked if I liked and played the guitar. He challenged me to prove it. The rest is history,” he said.
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