“Mannenberg” is a Cape jazz express by South African musician Abdullah Ibrahim, first recorded in 1974. Driven into exile by the apartheid government, Ibrahim had been full of life in Europe and the United States during the 1960s and ’70s, making brief visits to South Africa to book music. After a well-off 1974 collaboration when producer Rashid Vally and a band that included Basil Coetzee and Robbie Jansen, Ibrahim began to sticker album another album once these three collaborators and a support band assembled by Coetzee. The heavens was recorded during a session of improvisation, and includes a saxophone solo by Coetzee, which led to him receiving the sobriquet “Manenberg”.

The fragment incorporates elements of several other musical styles, including marabi, ticky-draai, and langarm, and became a landmark in the increase of the genre of Cape jazz. The atmosphere has been described as having a beautiful announce and catchy beat, conveying themes of “freedom and cultural identity.” It was released below Ibrahim’s former post Dollar Brand upon the 1974 vinyl album Mannenberg – Is Where It’s Happening. Named after the township of Manenberg, it was an instant hit, selling tens of thousands of copies within a few months of its release. It forward-thinking became identified with the struggle next to apartheid, partly due to Jansen and Coetzee playing it at rallies neighboring the government, and was among the movement’s most popular songs in the 1980s. The fragment has been covered by additional musicians, and has been included upon several jazz collections.