Marabi/Kwela
Marabi is an early style of popular South African music that was initiated during this period and remained popular into the World War II era. The music began as an instrumental keyboard style, typically played on an inexpensive pedal organ, and was commonly heard in the shebeens (bars serving homemade liquor) found in the growing townships outside Johannesburg. The pennywhistle street music that was commonly heard in Johannesburg and other South African urban centers. Led by a tin whistle (also known as a pennywhistle) soloist, these small groups played a marabi-style repeated chord progression supplied by an accompanying acoustic guitar. By the 1940s, this improvisatory “happy” style, known as kwela, had piqued the interest of radio broadcasters and record-industry talent scouts.