THE AMANDLA FREEDOM ENSEMBLE AND TROPICAL DIASPORA RECORDS PRESENT EXPANDED SECOND EDITION OF ORATORIO OF A FORGOTTEN YOUTH
Following overwhelming demand, the Amandla Freedom Ensemble, under the visionary leadership of trumpeter and composer Mandla Mlangeni, is thrilled to announce a second press of their groundbreaking 2023 album, Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth. This release reaffirms the album’s status as a vital work fusing jazz, Afro-jazz, classical, and indigenous traditions, while echoing the struggles and resilience of South Africa’s youth movements.
JOHANNESBURG/BERLIN (June 2025) – The Amandla Freedom Ensemble and Tropical Diaspora Records announce the second pressing of the critically acclaimed Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth, featuring the previously unreleased 14-minute spoken-word piece "HOMELESSNESS" by legendary South African poet Lesego Rampolokeng. This special gatefold edition presents Rampolokeng's complete poetic texts integrated within the lavish interior spread, including his searing verses from the album's powerful tracks.
THE POETIC CORE
Rampolokeng's words form the narrative backbone of this musical insurgency, particularly evident in tracks like "#Movement/SoldiersLament" where his poetry cuts through musical abstraction to reveal raw historical truth:
"As we chase the future the past bites us in the ass.
Soweto's stone-throwers grown up to be marshmallow warriors in Sandton.
The Gaborone Massacre become a fantasy story in a Groot Marico pub.
Go on 'google images' searching for Bheki Mlangeni.
And come away with more pictures of Eugene de Kock than of him.
And once again the power-monger wins."
"The past is in the present and no-one seems to be responsible for putting it there...
The writing of our time is in broken skulls.
Blood in the ink and pages of flesh.
Heads of state and tails of ash, when stories are tales of doom.
These cities were built on broken bodies.
Blood mixed in the cement.
Bones form the foundations."
The new edition also features the complete, previously unreleased 14-minute epic "HOMELESSNESS," recorded live during the ensemble's Market Theatre performance, serving as the album's devastating climax.
VISUAL AND TEXTUAL INTEGRATION
The gatefold format allows Rampolokeng's complete texts to be presented as integral visual and literary components, with DJ Garrincha's artistic reinterpretation honoring the original protest aesthetic by Tawanda Mu Afrika and Graeme Arendse's design. This creates a seamless fusion of word, image, and sound that transforms the vinyl into a cultural artifact.
ARTIST BIOS
MANDLA MLANGENI The Amandla Freedom Ensemble is a Johannesburg-based collective dedicated to advancing and preserving South African musical heritage through collaboration and innovation. Led by trumpeter Mandla Mlangeni, the ensemble works across generations and genres to sound the rhythms of memory and justice.
LESEGO RAMPOLOKENG stands as one of South Africa's most vital literary voices, emerging from the anti-apartheid struggle as a poet, playwright, and performer. His work combines searing social commentary with experimental linguistic innovation, drawing from jazz, punk, and traditional African oral traditions. Having collaborated with musicians including the Last Poets, Busi Mhlongo, and Louis Moholo, Rampolokeng's poetry represents a continuous thread of radical artistic resistance from the apartheid era to contemporary South Africa.
TROPICAL DIASPORA RECORDS is a Berlin-based independent label founded on anti-colonial principles and diasporic solidarity. Specializing in vinyl releases that bridge African musical traditions with contemporary global sounds, the label operates as both a platform for radical artistic expression and a critique of colonial cultural economies.
STATEMENTS
Mandla Mlangeni (Amandla Freedom Ensemble):
"Lesego's words provide the razor's edge that cuts through musical abstraction to reveal raw truth. From '#Movement/SoldiersLament' to 'HOMELESSNESS,' his poetry anchors this work in the uncomfortable realities of our continued struggle."
Lesego Rampolokeng:
"These words are not decoration - they are dissection. They come from the gutters and graves of our history, mapping the distance between official history and lived experience."