When a mother cries her children feel it. Yes, we are not just a people always dancing around fires or at robots waiting for the next generous hand to roll down the window and give. We are certainly not just a woman, carrying a child on her back with a sickle cutting grass in the fields. Or Gugu standing in the corner of Goud and Mooi Street licking her lips, also waiting for the next car that will pass. We have other concerns, a set of complex relationships and ideas around what life should look like. Matotiyana articulates this rich experience eloquently on the song Xel’ Int’ Omke Ngayo. The song deals with heartbreak, the collapse of the family structure, its effect on the children and regret. Matotiyana weaves all of these issues together in a way that accents their connectedness. She beats umcinga on Uhadi in an almost inimitable way (with an exception of the few remaining Uhadi players such as Madosini and Dizu Plaaties who contributes to the album), a way that affirms the texture of the lyrics Xel’ into omke ngayo, Tshiya abantwana belila. (Tell me what made you leave, you have left the children crying.)