Thandiswa Mazwai revisits a ‘traumatic’ family memory

by Bongiwe Mati

Multi-award-winning singing sensation Thandiswa “King Tha” Mazwai left her X (formerly Twitter) followers touched when she shared a picture of her young self with her younger siblings celebrating what was her brother’s first birthday, and her mother’s first death anniversary.

Thandiswa is an older sister to three siblings: singer and poet Ntsiki, chairperson of Music Creators SA Nomsa and an investment strategist brother named Osa.

From what Thandiswa shared, her mother passed on the same day she gave birth to her younger brother. Sharing the pain and trauma of growing up without a mother, the former Bongo Maffin band member posted a photo taken on her brother’s birthday, which was also her mother’s death anniversary.

She captioned it:

“A picture of me and my siblings. This picture always makes me sad. Because I know what happened to these kids. It was my brother’s 1st birthday and the 1 year anniversary of our mothers death. These kids faced such hardship. These kids live with many scars & are still fighting.”

She followed up by sharing that at almost 50, she hasn’t fully healed from everything that came with losing her mom.

“Losing a mother is the worst shem. Sending love to all the motherless kids. I’m almost 50 and still healing from all that her death brought.”

Receiving love from many social media users, the Abenguni hitmaker responded by answering their questions and also announced that she had documented the trauma in the form of a song which features in her upcoming album. She shared:

“I have a song in my new album about ‘childhood trauma.’ It’s the most personal song I have ever written. Kulungile. Kudlulile.”

Also see: Wiseman Mncube wins National Film TV Award