Bad things happen to the men who date her. So runs the narrative about ‘difficult woman’ Kelly Khumalo. She is blamed for Senzo Meyiwa's death – none of it has been proven but the criticism continues. Sihle Mthembu looks at how we vilify women musicians
Bad things happen to the men who date her. So runs the narrative about ‘difficult woman’ Kelly Khumalo. Most recently, she walked off stage at an EFF rally after the crowd started chanting the name of her late boyfriend, Bafana Bafana star Senzo Meyiwa. According to them, she is responsible for his death. None of it has been proven and yet the criticism of Khumalo continues.At the time of writing this, it’s late March and Kelly Khumalo should be nursing a break-up with rapper Chad da Don.
She’s on the edge of a makeshift stage, wearing a sheer beige top with embroidered appliques that barely cover her and a rose-gold skirt that looks like snakeskin. Before she goes on stage, Khumalo is bobbing from side to side like a pendulum waiting to settle. From where I’m sitting there are only a few minutes left and there is a whole event being made of her eyeliner, or there seems to be something in her eye.
There is no debate as far as pure talent is concerned – Khumalo is the best vocalist of her generation. T She looks directly at the camera, her gaze is neither confrontational nor vulnerable, instead it puts forward the theme that runs across the album – decisiveness. Here it is, this collection of 12 songs made by a woman who has seen the worst and refused to melt away.This is not an issues album. Perhaps with the benefit of time we will remember Unleashed as an animated musical map tracing the contours and folds that exist within Khumalo’s rich inner life.
The joke about Khumalo being a bad omen for the men with whom she forms relationships is a long-running one, but still bothersome. Men have their own agency and the historical benefits of patriarchy. It was Meyiwa who decided to be in that house; it was he who had moved out of his family home and left his wife to pursue Khumalo.
The morality of having a desire for justice is often weighed against the reality of having criminals who are also breadwinners ripped from the community. The latter wins way more times than it should. For some this was an unforgivable transgression. With many Mampintsha loyalists and even some who supported Babes declaring that for saying these words she is worse than he is and is making a mockery out of the people who supported her and that she deserves to get beaten up. We refuse to see this moment as Babes taking back her agency after Mampintsha recorded a song using the phrase that he said to her repeatedly while stripping her of her dignity.
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