In East Africa, among songs that have made Mafikizolo, the Afro-pop duo from South Africa, a household name are Ndihamba Nawe and Emlanjeni. And now Khona — the first single from the duo’s latest album, Reunited — remains popular more than a year after its release.

(Khona is written in Zulu and means “there” or “at that place”) but perhaps its greatest pulling force is the fact that you can sing along and dance to it even if you do not understand the language.

Mafikizolo is famed for Kwaito — a genre that in the simplest of terms is house music with an African feel.

In Dar es Salaam, Khona continues to top music charts. Not surprisingly, Mafikizolo’s recent concert at Mlimani City Hall was jam-packed. From the corporate to the street wise to the trendy, both young and old attended.

The duo that make up Mafikizolo — Nhlanhla Nciza and Theo Kgosinkwe — performed in Tanzania courtesy of the entertainment company Juega Casa, in collaboration with East African TV and Hennesy.

DJ spiel

Mafikizolo were backed up by a sax player, a keyboard player as well a drummer.

The show began with a DJ spiel between DJ H and DJ Monte Billa Ikoa of Juega Casa. Mafikizolo took to the stage a few minutes after midnight to rousing applause.

Theo was in a white suit, which he embellished with African bracelets; while Nhlanhla was in a red, black and white outfit, accessorised with African necklaces.

Unfortunately, the sound system was poor. The bass notes were so loud that the guy on the trumpet didn’t get to perform. His high notes would have distorted the music anyway. Popular cool ballads like Emlanjeni sounded like club hits, making it nearly impossible to truly enjoy the concert.

But judging from the reception Mafikizolo got, it seems the crowd chose to ignore the poor sound quality.

Given the fact that this is not the first time such a mishap is happening, Dar es Salaam may just be building a bad reputation for itself among international artists.

In 2011, for example, the same thing happened at Grammy award winner Chaka Khan’s concert. In the same year, Hugh Masekela refused to perform due to sound problems.