Amampondo are one of the best known South African percussion ensembles and ambassadors of African music. "Amampondo" means, literally, "people from Mpondo" - imaginary country of the Xhosa kingdom. The ensemble formed in 1979 by Dizu 'Zungulu' Plaatjies was originally made up of seven young men from Langa Township, outside Cape Town. One of the reasons for forming a band was the preservation of Southern African traditional music. Today the ensemble has eleven musicians.

At the beginning, the music of Amampondo was based on rhythms, dances and tunes by Xhosa, Zulu, Shangaan, and Sotho tribes, creating a pan-African sound. The reputation of one of the world's leading percussion ensembles was confirmed in 1988 when the band performed at the Wembley stadium, to celebrate Nelson Mandela's 70 th birthday. At the same time, this concert earned them a temporary ban from performing in South Africa and abroad. In 1996 Nelson Mandela nominated them, as his favorite band, to represent South Africa at the opening ceremony of Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Amampondo visited all continents, performing in over 30 countries. In their desire to preserve the tradition and at the same time bring it closer to a wider audience, Amampondo opens their music to a number of partnerships. In this way they add jazz and techno music to the sound of traditional African instruments, drums, and tunes. Together with Juno Reactoro they appeared as the opening act at Moby's U.S. tour, bringing traditional African music in the context of modern dance music. In 2000 they toured U.K. with British jazz sax player Al an Skidmore.

Performing in traditional costumes, Amampondo takes you to a dance journey through Africa, releasing the spirit of dance in each person in the audience!