South Africa is under the spotlight right now. Or perhaps floodlight is more appropriate. The football World Cup has just days left before kick-off and it’s all anyone can think about.

Although, that’s not completely true. The relentless exposure generated by sport’s greatest prize has also nitro-boosted South Africa’s wildly creative and totally passionate clubbing scene in a way that the global dance community probably didn’t expect it to.

“The World Cup has given South African artists like me an amazing platform to do what we do” opens Mgo, a 30-year-old ‘Kwaito’ singer and dance producer from an impoverished part of the township of Johannesburg . “We have a unique sound here. Our lyrics aren’t just about ‘love you this’ and ‘love you that’, they have real social and political power.”

Kwaito, an assertive mix of house, hip-hop, ragga and native African sounds, evolved during the mid-1990s when the shackles of Apartheid were finally being dismantled under Nelson Mandela’s historic, reforming government. “Kwaito was born out of revolution, as well as the local DJs’ love of 80’s Chicago house” Mgo explains. “Even with the end of Apartheid near, it was still difficult for the black townships to speak freely. Kwaito, driven by slow house rhythms, was our mouthpiece. The lyrics were often in Zulu to hide our protests from the authorities.”

Kwaito Singer

The political passion evident in those early days is every bit as incendiary today. Black South Africans might well have political freedom but huge social problems remain – crime, poverty and the rampant spread of HIV and AIDS. “There are always important things to talk about in our music” Mgo confirms. “Yes, the music is a celebration and escape but there are still things people need to know.”

And know they will. South Africa is bracing itself for a major influx of World Cup tourists next month, many of whom will hit local clubs and parties during their stay and gain an opportunity to hear the host nation’s unique take on dance music. Certainly, several of South Africa’s smaller, non-competition football stadiums are promising screening festivals as the ‘Cup’ progresses – a chance to see the matches at more affordable prices, and then dance to a line-up of local and distinguished club performers.

Kwaito isn’t, of course, the same Kwaito that stormed into cultural consciousness at the time of Mandela’s rise. The music has evolved considerably over the past decade, leaning ever closer to Western house rhythms and electronica. Today, South African dance music is a mix of all sorts of funky things.

DJ Roger Goode, South Africa’s answer to Pete Tong what with a prime-time show on major South African station 5FM, agrees. “Our country isn’t yet saturated with music like other parts of the world. There’s a hunger for tunes and experimentation here, and the barriers of race, culture and sound really are coming down” he affirms. “There is still some segregation. We have this fast-growing urban, black market increasingly driven by house on the one hand, and an upper income white market dominated by commercial sounds on the other, but as I say, things are starting to mix. There’s so many fresh sounds coming out of this part of the world.”

Roger Goode

Local music journalist Maria McCloy, heavily involved in the recent international release of compilation Ayobaness! The Sound Of South African House, shares Goode’s positivity. “Ayoba is a township catchphrase used to express excitement, it’s a great way to describe the house scene down here” she declares. “Things are evolving nicely, there are a lot more international influences now but the beats and chants are still very local. They’re designed to make local asses move, but I think the world is starting to cotton on.”

Ayobaness! is an astute and fantastically colourful summary of one of clubland’s newest, most radically developing scenes. Mgo appears with remixed anthem Yes, as does popular house DJ Aero Manyelo, ‘South African President of Youth Culture’ Pastor Mbhobho and a string of DJs currently raising their profile abroad – DJ Cleo, Black Coffee and Pretoria-born DJ Mujava. The latter has enjoyed particularly massive success since the release of 2008 single Township Funk, a track that quite literally stormed the world and continues to infiltrate compilation releases thanks to some rather slinky remix work by Crazy P.

“We need better telecoms and faster internet connectivity” Goode stresses, as he considers the South African scene’s future. “That will help spread the word.” Otherwise, the country’s location at the southern tip of Africa remains a distance too far for many touring, international DJs to cover - the kind of big-names that might help fertilise seedling South African ideas across the wider reaches of clubland.

Regardless, times continue to change. A good bellwether being this year’s Miami conference, at which several South African house jocks were enthusiastically embraced; their flights were funded by the South African Arts Council. “It was amazing” Mgo grins. “We’re finally getting the recognition among our international peers that we’ve been working hard for; not to mention support from the South African authorities. There’s a long way to go yet but I have a dream about our music being heard and enjoyed everywhere and, slowly, it’s coming true.”

South Africa is celebrating and a football hasn’t even been kicked yet…

Ayobaness! The Sound Of South African House is out now on Out Here Records.