Heita buttercup!

It feels like a bit of a chicken and egg story: did London tempratures rise to 34 degrees today to welcome Freshlyground, or did Freshlyground bump up the mercury and get London sizzling? Either way, the day was steamy and Zolani quite rightly kicked off her shoes so as to feel the dusty piece of Africa that was the stage at the Carling Islington academy tonight. And I know that I am sounding like a music review, but I'm afraid it can't be helped.

For those of you not in the know, Freshlyground is a 7-piece Afro-pop style band from mZansi. I feel kind of motherly about them because since first spying them at the Cape Town Jazz festival some three years ago now, I have watched this baby waddle into releative stardom. I say relative because hey, celeb culture is not exactly an African phenomenon. And look at them now, in London, performing to a sell out crowd. And in a way, this is surprising, because unlike the majority of so-called hot acts, Freshlyground has an air of quaintness about them - which the people are respondong to. There is a gentle hippiness to their lyrics which liken girls to buttercups, speak of politicians listening to the people, and is infused with the African culture of story-telling. And of love. Not just the hot sweaty lustful stuff, or even the sweetly romantic stuff, but love of humanity, of sun, of culture and of life. Certainly there was a lot of love in the room. I personally sang my little heart out with the lovely black man to my right, and shook my African booty alongside the smiling coloured lady to my left. And this to me is the spirit of Africa. This is what gets under your skin and into your blood. This is the spirit of a grounded continent, a sun-soaked, dry-earthed, ryhthm-swayed triangle of the earth that I feel blessed to call home.

To feel that positive energy it seems hard to believe that ours is still a continent of strife and violence. If only I could scoop this energy up in a swollen gourd and deliver it to Madiba on this, his 88th birthday, and give him the power to annoint the whole land with it.

For now, I guess, it is at least good to know that despite the difficulties she suffers, that warm heart of Africa still beats and her people, wherever they are in the world, are clapping to the rhythm.