Kwela

Kwela is a pennywhistle-based street music from southern Africa[1] with jazzy underpinnings and a distinctive, skiffle-like beat.

It evolved from the marabi sound and brought South African music to international prominence in the 1950s.

The popularity of the pennywhistle may have been based on the fact that flutes of different kinds have long been traditional instruments among the peoples of the more northerly parts of South Africa and the pennywhistle thus enabled the swift adaptation of folk tunes into the new marabi-influenced music.

The most common explanation for the word "kwela" is that it is taken from the Zulu for "climb", though in township slang it also referred to police vans, the "kwela-kwela".

It is said that the young men who played the pennywhistle on street corners also acted as lookouts to warn those enjoying themselves in the shebeens of the arrival of the police.