From Makhaza to the world.

Where we began

We came together in 2023 in Makhaza, Khayelitsha — a community where joy and hardship sit side by side, and where music has always been one of the ways young people find each other.

We rehearsed wherever we could. We sang in community halls, at church services, at gatherings where our voices were the whole programme. We did it because singing together was the most joyful thing we could imagine doing with our lives.

The journey outward

Within two years our voices had travelled further than any of us imagined. From Khayelitsha and Cape Town to Paris and São Paulo. From street corners in Stellenbosch to a national gallery. From a handful of local supporters to a following that grew into the millions across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Through all of it, the choir itself remained what it had always been: a group of young people from Khayelitsha, singing.

What Lizwi means

Lizwi is the isiXhosa word for voice. Not just sound — voice in the fuller sense: the carrier of memory, the instrument of agency, the thing that says I am here.

It is the right word for who we are. The choir is its voices. The voices own the choir. The name is the thing.

Where we are now

We are Lizwi Choir. We are owned and led by the singers who built this work. We manage ourselves. We are establishing a new Non-Profit Organisation, governed by the founding members, with transparency built into its foundations.

For the longer telling of how we arrived here, including the rebrand, see our FAQ.

Where we are going

We are going to keep singing. We are going to keep travelling. We are going to keep bringing Khayelitsha to the world and the world back to Khayelitsha. And in time, we hope to open the same doors for the next generation of young artists from our community that opened for us — only this time, with transparency, fair pay, and ownership built into the foundation.