As she nears two major milestones, her 50th birthday and 30 years in music, celebrated musician Thandiswa Mazwai is transforming reflection into purposeful action.
Mazwai shares thrilling details about her inaugural Sankofa Heritage Festival, a cultural gathering celebrating memory, African heritage, and collective restoration, set for Saturday, February 28 2026, at Carnival City.
She tells the Saturday Star that Sankofa is “both deeply personal and expansively communal.”
“I’m not getting any younger, and I wanted to create a space that would in some way house my legacy,” she says.
Long known for weaving history, activism, and spirituality into her work, she describes the festival as another extension of her passion for “memory, heritage, and archive” and a way to open doors for other cultural workers.
Though this is its first edition, Mazwai speaks of Sankofa as a living, growing idea, one she is excited to nurture.
The festival arrives at a moment of personal reckoning and celebration.
She says decades of touring and cultural exchange have sharpened her understanding of representation and ownership.
“Over the years I have travelled all over the world and seen firsthand how important it is to represent where you come from, especially as an African. The world has for a long time been harvesting ideas from Africa, and it is now time for us to stand tall to lay claim to our incredible knowledge systems and ways of being. The festival brings all that experience together in a space where we can collectively showcase our ideas and celebrate what was left behind by our ancestors or forefathers,” she says.
At its core, the festival is an act of restoration. Mazwai explains that in a world where African histories have often been erased or dismissed, she has always been drawn to retrieval.
She said the aim is to build a stronger sense of community rooted in love, healing and pride.
That ethos is reflected in her choice of co-headliners, Somi and Msaki, artists she describes as cultural workers deeply committed to collaboration and community.
“They are both cultural workers who believe in collaboration and community. Somi’s work with Salon Africana as well as her album delving into Miriam Makeba’s discography showcases some of her deep interest in the archive and memory. Msaki works with a collective of musicians from East Africa. I saw them perform in Zanzibar last February and knew then that I would take South Africans to see them.”
Long-standing sisterhoods lie at the heart of Sankofa. Mazwai credits the women in her life for making the festival possible. “Community is everything, and I’m only able to do this first iteration because of my sisters bayandixhasa,” she says.
The festival will partner with Moya Podcast to share history-focused episodes, with additional cultural elements to be revealed over time.
Mazwai envisions it as a growing hub for culture and restoration, evolving with each passing year.
Looking ahead, she says, “I hope to create a powerful pan-African festival that can celebrate all of Africa. We hope that it will become about more than just music.”
This comes after Mazwai’s album Sankofa dominated at the South African Music Awards (SAMAs), winning Best Produced Album, Best Engineered Album, and Best African Adult Contemporary Album, while she also claimed Female Artist of the Year.
Saturday Star