A soulful Black political commentator using my favourite format - music - to teach, interrogate, entertain, enlighten and remember. Khayelitsha’s Kitso Seti finally shares his much anticipated conceptually layered work, Sons of Perdition: Umdyarho Wamabuzi on 1 April 2026, with the world. A work that speaks for, to and about the Black soul, the Black body, the Black mind and its journey in this reality. 

 

I briefly met Kitso Seti at uManyano Lwe Jazz 2025, a very short conversation I don’t fully recall. But I definitely remember the Xhosa accent and the coloured hair for sure! I later interacted with him online sharing commentary on Stogie T’s Four Horsemen. Through that, I learned about his artistry and his mission through his music recommendations. They were foundational in understanding him not only as an artist but also as a soul. 

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The Album & 3 Years of it in the drive

Sons of Perdition: Umdyarho Wamabuzi, has been completed since 2023. The journey happened in 2022/23 working closely with pianist and composer, Thembi Dunjana, as well as Concept Records. If you have experienced Seti’s previous releases, eKhayelitsha and Lot’s Wife: The Curse of Hoza & Ngxobongwana, you’ll know and expect this new work to also sit at the intersections of these politic: Black injustice, colonial history, Black life, Black joy. Sonically, though, this is a huge step for Seti as a musician, as he incorporates live instrumentation in this one.

“This one needs you to come with new ears and a clean slate for you to engage with the work”, he shares. “If you’ve got any presumptions, leave them out”.

My big question when we started the chat was why he held onto the work for so long. And like someone who operates closely with Spirit, he just needed to be 'in the zone',  he calls it. The multidisciplinary artist and academic, tends to his different garden of art mediums when the seasons call for either one of them to reap what has been sown in the earlier periods. “I do not release or share work for the sake of it. Never”, Seti states. Fortunately, the time has finally come! Lots of life has happened between then and now including his move to Makhanda where he lectures in the Politics Department. It’s commendable that despite discouragement of his decision to hold off on releasing and pressure from peers, he waited on what I would call Divine Timing - to share the work. Three years cooking and what’s on this menu? We find out this week. 

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Being Black in South Africa in 2026

I tossed Seti’s favourite question at him, “What does it mean to be Black in 2026?”. He shot back, “Kak. It's the worst thing ever. Really. I want to be a white man from Stellenbosch. We live disposable lives as Blacks because at any point, you know you’ll die. It can happen any time. Especially if you are from the township.”

 

I challenged Seti by asking if he feels anything will change in a few years considering the voice and cries from his previous projects have the same essence. I created a hypothetical, where his album is speaking on different times and experiences for Black people. He shut it down immediately. A realist. I challenged again, wouldn’t it be him prophesying if he spoke to a better time for Black people? If he spoke and imagined better realities through his music. He didn’t budge. 

 

And a huge part of this resistance from him was the way the youth of our country isn’t tapped into the real work of choosing a way forward for our country. He condemns Big Brother and how the majority of the youth can afford to vote for a participant but not even register and educate oneself about the upcoming elections. (I had to weep a little at that because I love Big Brother, although I haven’t watched it in a while. I still want to go there - for writing material, of course.)

 

Nevertheless, here is my proposition where these are both concerned: We get politicians to be presented in that format, no? Or we have individuals like Kitso Seti, Jaxx Amahle on show formats like Big Brother, strategically placing them there to encourage and teach. 

 

Again, he resisted my proposition. Not one to have his personal scrutinised. The work? Yes. Not Kitso Seti the person. 

 

I carved deeper, reflecting on his archive, “Would you start a political party?”

“Never.” —--

That stung. He is a colourful, soulful and learned contender. 

It’s only fitting that he does, as someone whose work speaks for and to the Black people. He interrogates and challenges the powers that continue to oppress the Black soul. Unfortunately this generation only gets Kitso Seti the artist. Not the cadre, politician, president. 

 

So then, I would be daring to say that this is the best one. He does not get to be contaminated by the dirty political games that take place up top. We get to experience a clear headed, conscious leader doing work using one of God’s greatest gifts to us. Music. Not so much a loss, I guess. It’s an opportunity for the youth to really engage with work that has potential to open the minds of our next leaders.

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Theatre, Music & Politics

As a multidisciplinary artist myself, I imagine the orgasm of having a layered work - theatre, writing, music. All you. Unfortunately this is not something Seti has experimented with yet. This proposal and question comes up often apparently. Nevertheless, his work all has a bottom line - Black, protest, socio-political. He confesses that he does not split himself into theatre-maker, artist, writer or academic. No. It’s all just Kitso Seti. 

The process of making this album was: thought/idea→writing/voice notes→live instrumentation.

The conception is really from thought, random melody or chorus visits. He has a tattered notebook that’s journeyed with him for years in which he writes his raps, poetry and ideas. That’s the one we put in the museum.

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“Through which medium are you most honest?” 

Let the record show that he prefers the music medium. It’s the one he’s most honest through and where he’s most transparent. Therefore, I can only imagine what Sons of Perdition has in there following Lockdown, the large unemployment rate that followed and the growth of online activity and bombardment of information. 

We love a genre-defying rapper and writer. We love a poet on a beat. We love an orator of the times. We can look forward to a work that puts him at the forefront of socio-political commentary and a timestamp for these times. 

 

Seti repeats this like it’s a mantra every two or three days on his social media: GRAMMY Award-Winning.

I asked if he truly is an awards person, and like everyone, he admits that it is the kind recognition that is satisfying for an artist, especially. He says he’ll only hate them after he’s won; doesn’t want to seem like he’s hating from outside of the club. Fair.

Upon reflection, the work not only revealed to him that he is a brilliant rapper and writer but that even in his artistic mode, he remains a sharp academic and thinker. 

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Sons of Perdition was announced to the public via a social media post with the opening line being the Bible verse Ncwadi Yenthsumayeli: 2:22-23. As someone who is not religious at all, he explained he is using that as a layer that complements the title of the project. It speaks to working and working and working but nothing to show for it…

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I hope that he reaps what he has sown with the album. Especially considering it was a labour of love with lovely artists in Cape Town. I am truly moved and inspired by how everyone showed up for him in this work. I do not have a full scope of what the music community looks like here in Johannesburg in terms of coming together to record music with a fellow colleague. I can only hope it is as warm as this was. He collaborated with the following artist to make the work: 

Thembelihle Dunjana, Sean Sanby, Keegan Steenkamp, Kurt Bowers, Tefo Mahola, Kujenga, and Khaya Mthembu- Salter, Internet Athi, Zusiphe Mtsitshe, Batandwa Ketelo, Simanye Rorwana,Tefo Mahola, Tankiso Mamabolo, iNdlulamthi, Simphiwe Sim Mabuya, Naked Soul, Mbali Malimela, Sibusiso Malimela and SmartBlack Mampondo.

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Mind you, these were all organic collaborators. None of it was because of any other intention except mutual will. Shoutout to Thembi Dunjana for working her magic with this one. She worked closely with Seti to create this one.

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Legacy

​You will have to listen to the work two or more times before it sits with you completely. He had predicted it will be a slow cook considering it is conceptual.  

Now open your soul to receive the message he is sent to bring to us isizwe semnyama. Seti speaks about how he is not one to be emotional in daily life and places a lot of that in the work. He loves when everyone is happy. He always wants to put a smile on people’s faces like his Instagram name, Tata Ka Smiles. 

And truly this chat reflected that. The chat took an hour longer than it was supposed to. He made crazy jokes in between and condemned ever having to do the radical work of dying for this country. Well, not these people, he shared. Maybe the earlier ones. So, I wonder who he was before he reincarnated? 

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In closing asked the legacy question, what do you want people, bots or whoever finds this work 20 years from now, to know about you: 

‘That I Loved & Spread Love For Black People When It Was Not Fashionable’

 

Sons of Perdition: Umdyarho Wamabuzi drops tomorrow, 1 April 2026 on all DSPs. 

 

Aluta!

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