mgqashiyo, noun

/(ə)mɡ͡ǂaˈʃiːyɔ/
Forms:
Also mqhashiyo.
Origin:
IsiZulu, IsiXhosaShow more IsiZulu umgqashiyo, isiXhosa umqhashiyo, from gqashiya (isiZulu), qhashiya (isiXhosa), to dance attractively, to dance in a modern style.
Music
A style of popular music featuring close-harmony singing (usually by a three- or four-woman group) of traditional or neo-traditional African (especially Zulu) songs set to mbaqanga rhythms and instrumentation. Also attributive. Cf. simanje-manje.
Note:
The style became popular in the 1960s.
1976 World 14 Sept. 8Mahotella Queens are pioneers of a music which later came to be called mgqashiyo. This music was taken from traditional pieces, given a new lease of life for urban consumption.
1976 N. ka Mnyayiza in New Classic No.3, 27Mgqashiyo is the in-music.
1978 Pace Dec. 44The Dark City Sisters of ‘Tamati yoyo’ fame pioneered the ‘mqhashiyo’ close-harmony groups.
1988 J. Khumalo in Pace May 7At the centre of this new-found enthusiasm about South Africa’s music is Paul Simon, whom Joe regards as the man who modernised Mgqashiyo.
1990 Weekly Mail 21 Dec. (Suppl.) 31We have seen the delightful combination of Zulu street-guitar, mbube, mgqashiyo (the return of the female-contingent) and 1950s-style ‘groaning’ as espoused by the Lion of Soweto and his Queens make its way into the..British pop-world via the new Art of Noise disc.
A style of popular music featuring close-harmony singing (usually by a three- or four-woman group) of traditional or neo-traditional African (especially Zulu) songs set to mbaqanga rhythms and instrumentation. Also attributive.
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IsiZulu
IsiXhosa
mfowethu, nounn.mhlekazi, nounn.
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