Rural NGO releases ‘African Gospel CD’
Johannesburg, July 6, 2010
“Soccer Unites Nations” is the title song on the new gospel CD which has been released by the Themba Trust, a non-profit educational organisation across South Africa and Germany as part of the 2010 FIFA World Cup celebrations. “What makes this CD special,” says Nokukhanya Shabalala, Communication Officer of the Themba Trust, is that 13 of the 16 songs featured have been written by high school students, employees and volunteers involved with the Themba Trust”. The CD is a fundraising project to help cover scholarships for disadvantaged students, mainly children of farmworkers, to attend the Sinethemba Secondary Boarding School, which was started by the Themba Trust 25 years ago in deep rural Mpumalanga.
Five of the songs were written by Senzy Khumalo, a very talented young singer, composer and artist, who is a former student of the Siyathemba Secondary School, which was started by the Themba Trust 15 years ago. Senzy is currently studying on a scholarship in the United States of America in California at Concordia University Irvine. She came back home to South Africa in time for the launch of this CD.
Photo: Not just pretty faces - Six former Themba Boarding School students with fantastic voices that helped to make the "Soccer Unites Nations" CD happen. They were also helping to promote the CD during the FIFA 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa: Hendry, Nkosikhona, Senzy, Xolani, Portia and Phindokuhle. Senzy and Phindokuhle also helped with songwriting some of the 13 original songs on the CD.
 Photo: The lead voice on the title song is that of a Grade 11 student at the Sinethemba Secondary School, Sena Adigbo, from Swaziland, whose father is from Ghana. Like the ‘Black Stars’ carried the hope of the continent of Africa, the song ‘Soccer Unites Nations’ is a call to all people in Africa, and internationally, to work together to create a better world.
All sixteen songs on the CD are performed by the ‘Ambassador Choir’ of the Themba Schools, called ‘ACTS’ for short. While the title song has the potential to become a stadium hit and is described by the producers as ‘Techno Gospel’, most of the rest of the songs are ‘a capella’ gospel songs, mainly in the African Gospel tradition, featuring the beautiful voices of 20 young students, former students and volunteers attached to the Themba Trust. The volunteers that participated in this project are from the United States of America, Zimbabwe and Soweto, South Africa.
This is the fourth CD produced through the Themba Trust, but the first one that is widely marketed in South Africa. The first two CDs were only made available to the immediate Themba network of supporters in South Africa and Germany, while the third CD, which featured a young jazzsinger from the USA, Erin Bode and her band, proved to be a huge success within the USA, marketed through schools and churches and raising over R2 million for the Themba Trust. (www.thembagirls.org)
The lyrics of the "Soccer Unites Nations" CD area available in English and German, as well as in Zulu on this website. Follow this link to the lyrics.
Buy your CD by clicking here.
Interested people are also welcome to call the Themba Trust’s Sales Office in Pretoria at
Tel.012-3443340 or email the Chief Executive Officer, Reinhild Niebuhr, at
Issued by:
Nokukhanya Shabalala, Communication Officer of the Themba Trust
Cel. 076-8881536 or mail at
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