Udaba (the matter/issue at hand) is a collective group of scholars/students, artists and entrepreneurs who are commonly engaged in the production of a musical project.A musical flurry of passion, soul, soothsaying, truth-telling and jazz poetry that takes you on flights of improvisational abandon. Their politically engaged elegies fuse vernacular lyricism, Xhosa praise singing and African indigenous music on jam-like sets .The style of music that Udaba creates draws its influences from various music genres. It is a fusion of jazz, vernacular lyricism and African indigenous music. The central theme of the music is the use of African languages (isiXhosa) to inform especially illiterate rural youths about the dynamic of culture within a transforming African society. The message it carries deals with issues ranging from cultural and historical heritage to the present day social and political challenges faced by the African continent.

 

Udaba draws their inspiration from Xhosa literature so as to translate it into musically meaningful ways in the form of praise singing, lyrical essays and poetry. This is the reason why they refer to their kind of music as Umculo Buciko (musical essays).

Since 2006 Udaba has performed in the Observatory Festival, Grahamstown Arts Festival, in addition to the club performances from Imbizo Jazz Café (East London) to Independent Armchair Theater (Cape Town).

In 2008, Udaba premiered in the Fringe programme of the Grahamstown NAFEST, with their production, The Burning issue......