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1/28/02

LADYSMITH BLACK MAMBAZO TO PERFORM AT SLU

CANTON - South African musicians Ladysmith Black Mambazo will 
perform at St. Lawrence University on Saturday, February 9, at 
8 p.m. in Gulick Theatre. Free tickets will be available only 
to St. Lawrence students, faculty and staff from January 21 
through February 1 at the E.J. Noble University Center main 
desk. Any remaining tickets for the general public will be 
available after February 1; tickets will also be distributed 
there for a simulcast of the performance, to be shown in the 
Northstar Pub and The Underground. 
	Ladysmith Black Mambazo has come to represent the 
traditional culture of South Africa. They are regarded as 
South Africa's cultural emissaries at home and around the 
world. In 1993, at Nelson Mandela's request, members of the 
group accompanied the future president, and then-South African 
President F.W. de Klerk, to the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony 
in Oslo, Norway. They sang again at President Mandela's 
inauguration in May of 1994, and are a national treasure of 
the new South Africa, in part because they embody the traditions 
suppressed in the old South Africa.
	The name Ladysmith Black Mambazo came about as a result 
of winning every singing competition that the group entered. 
"Ladysmith" is the hometown of the Shabalala family; "Black" 
makes reference to black oxen, considered to be the strongest 
on the farm. The Zulu word "Mambazo" refers to an ax - symbolic 
of the group's ability to "chop down" the competition. So good 
were they that, after a time, they were forbidden to enter the 
competitions but welcomed, of course, to entertain at them.
	The concert at St. Lawrence is sponsored by the St. Lawrence 
University Alcoa Foundation Cultural Affairs Program Fund. It is 
part of the semester-long Flippin' the Script: Recognizing 
Differences, Finding Commonalities, Negotiating Identities, 
Transforming Communities, a series of activities and events 
presented through the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's 
Pluralism and Unity Project.

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