South Africa: Pilani Bubu – Reclaiming and Reinventing Folklore

[Afropop] If you wanted one word to describe South Africa’s Pilani Bubu, the word might be “vibrant.” Bubu has a vibrancy when you see her, when you hear her sing, or even just talk. At the opening gathering of this year’s WOMEX conference, held in Lisbon, Portugal, someone asked who I was interested in interviewing. When I mentioned Bubu, that person pointed and said, “Oh, she’s just right over there.” I looked towards where they were pointing and there were more than 50 people standing there. Now maybe it was simp