“I have too many wishes and dreams in my head,” BCUC sing in the chorus of “Umdumakhanda” – “Umduma ikhanda, I think I am losing my mind.” The song is about unfulfilled dreams in post-apartheid Soweto, where people are free but life remains hard, and where images of luxury, beaches and designer fashion circulate online without pause. “I want to afford pizza with extra cheese,” they add, “and I want my name to be known in Ibiza.” Released on 13 March, it is the third single from The Road Is Never Easy, their upcoming fifth album and debut on Outhere Records, out on 3 April.
BCUC, short for Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness, are a seven-piece from Soweto who have spent more than twenty years building from humble beginnings, starting out rehearsing in a shipping container a stone’s throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organised the escape of anti-apartheid activists. Their sound brings together indigenous funk, hip-hop consciousness and punk energy, drawing on ritual songs, shebeen songs and church songs infused with rap and a rock and roll approach.
The Road Is Never Easy was recorded largely in Munich during tour breaks, in a studio inside a converted Second World War bunker, over two three-day sessions, with the songs recorded in one take and a small number of backing vocal overdubs added later at Fourways Studio in Johannesburg. The album was produced by Outhere’s Jay Rutledge, who describes it as “like punk and pure gospel at the same time.”
The album’s title goes back to the people of Soweto who came to work in the mines of Egoli, Johannesburg, the City of Gold, and whose hopes for a better life after apartheid ended more than thirty years ago are still waiting to be fulfilled. The cover is based on a matchbox design. “These were the matches people used to burn government buildings and cars,” BCUC explain. Their European and UK tour runs from April to July 2026, with confirmed UK stops including Leeds, Bedford, London and Walton-on-Trent.
Listen to “Umdumakhanda” HERE and pre-order The Road Is Never Easy via THIS LINK