WeeklySA_AdminGLIMPSE: Award-winning Venda indie-folk artist Muneyi offers an intimate first listen to Shumela Venda, a deeply personal album exploring identity, memory and the margins of South African history…
By Jacob Mawela
Venda indie-folk artist Muneyi, winner of the 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music, hosted an intimate listening session for his upcoming album, Shumela Venda, at Anglo American’s Johannesburg offices last night.
The Tshilapfene-born artist from outside Thohoyandou treated fans, invited guests and members of the media to snippets from his first full-length release in five years, offering a glimpse into a project that promises to be one of his most ambitious works to date. Known for his soulful, heritage-rooted sound, Muneyi blends childhood memories, folktales and contemporary textures into deeply personal storytelling.
Across 10 songs, Shumela Venda explores identity, memory and the complexities of nationhood, revisiting Venda’s place in South Africa’s historical and cultural landscape. Rather than leaving it at the margins, Muneyi uses the album to re-inscribe Venda into the national conversation through music that is both intimate and politically resonant.
Raised by his grandmother, Muneyi discovered music after finishing school and found in the guitar a vehicle to tell stories in Tshivenda. His work shines a light on forgotten histories and sidelined narratives while reimagining personal and collective memory through song.
Explaining the album’s title and themes, Muneyi said his work was shaped by reflections on Venda’s post-Bantustan legacy and the burden artists often carry when engaging with South Africa’s difficult past. He said he wanted to showcase Tshivenda and Vhavenda identity in the same way other communities celebrate their languages and cultures.
“I wanted to show that a language that is marginalised, seen as difficult, othered and under-represented can exist in the same world as other South African languages,” he said.
Muneyi described the album not as a historical study, but as a personal reflection rooted in post-apartheid Venda, adding that he simply writes and sings from an honest place.
He also explained that the visual language of the album was carefully constructed, including a reimagined coat of arms and Venda flag, to provoke curiosity about Venda’s history and symbolism.
Produced by Tendai “Shoxx” Shoko, Shumela Venda builds on the soundscape of Muneyi’s 2021 debut Makhulu and tackles subject matter that is both divisive and deeply personal, woven into South Africa’s cultural fabric yet often pushed to the fringes.
Standard Bank Group sponsorships head Bonga Sebesho said the bank was proud to support the project, describing the album as a cultural treasure that would resonate with audiences now and for generations to come.
