In Conversation: Serokolo No. 7

The Limpopo producer on how Mapanta is built, why it belongs to a ceremony rather than a club, and finding out Björk had played his record.

Written byFabio Malzbauer

Map of Ga-Sekhukhune, Limpopo, South Africa — Map: Ga-Sekhukhune, Limpopo, South Africa

Mapanta is a village-rooted electronic music from Ga-Sekhukhune, in South Africa's Limpopo province, the homeland of the Bapedi people. It first surfaced locally in the 1980s, slower music then, but already called Mapanta, played at weddings and ceremonies. Then it receded, staying confined to the region with almost no formal documentation.

Serokolo No. 7 was heavily inspired by the sound and began building his own version of it.

Its contemporary form is built in FL Studio at tempos around 180 BPM, from sound packs passed informally between producers, and its vocals are delivered primarily in Sepedi. It is played at youth gatherings and, in particular, at tombstone unveilings, where the real dancing happens the night before.

At the center of its current revival is Serokolo No. 7, a 27-year-old producer, DJ, and sound-system operator. His debut album, Maramfa Musick Pro, was released on April 24, 2026, by the Kampala label Nyege Nyege Tapes. Two weeks later, Björk played a track from it during her DJ set at the Venice Biennale.

We spoke to him, with the first answer given as a voice note and transcribed here, about the sound, the ceremony it belongs to, and where he wants it to go. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

QTake us inside a Mapanta ceremony, specifically the night before, when you say the real dancing happens. What does the yard actually look and sound like at 2am? Who's there, what's the sound system doing, what does the crowd do that an outsider would never expect?

Answered by Serokolo No. 7's manager, via voice note

Mapanta is like a thing they do before a ceremony, not necessarily a wedding. There's a big culture here in South Africa of tombstone unveilings. If somebody in your family passes away, after the funeral is done, the next year they unveil the tombstone. They put a tombstone on the grave, and when they do that, they have a big party. So the day before that, people have a party. The Mapanta guys come to dance.

Normally before twelve it's popular music, Manyalo and all that, upcoming DJs, upcoming dancers, just warming up the stage. And then the actual thing starts really at twelve. It goes down, and then around one-thirty a popular DJ comes in, and all the dancers go on stage, and it goes down. It'll be like a trance. Something different. You have to be there to actually experience it, because when I was there, I even thought I was drunk. I had to go to the car and check if I'd opened the beers or not.

They go into a trance. The energy's high. From around half past one until 4am, the vibe is crazy. The music is loud, syncopating. The feet: if you bend down, you'll hear all the footwork, and they're adamant, they add it all the time. They don't stop. They only stop when the song stops. They don't really like mixing songs; they play the song quickly. It just goes on and on and on. Until 4am, 5am it slows down, and then 8am they're just chilling. So it's that kind of thing.

QWalk us through how you actually build a Mapanta track. Where does it start: a vocal, a drum pattern, a sound from someone else's pack? What's the first thing that goes into the session, and how do you know when it's finished?

Answered by Serokolo No. 7

I start with the snares and then the kicks. Then you follow with the instrument before adding the samples from different packs. We even use animal sounds. Then start mixing.

QYou've talked about the influence of hearing older people play Mapanta at weddings when you were young. Is there a specific person, an elder, a relative, a particular DJ, you think of as you work? Someone you're trying to make proud, or carry forward?

There's an elder called Smish, but he did Manyalo music. With Mapanta, I started myself. The old Mapanta is very different: it's slower. I started the current Mapanta.

QA lot of Mapanta gets made by producers sharing and passing sounds around. Who are the producers you're working with or teaching right now that you want to shout out?

Others do fight for ownership. The ones I want to give a shout out are KTS Music, Knare, and Piano Man. These are the producers I taught and work with.

QIf someone hears your music once, on the other side of the world, with no idea what a Mapanta ceremony is, what is the one thing you'd want them to feel or understand?

Mapanta is a spiritual thing. It's not just music but dance, or rather chants. Mapanta is not only for weddings; it's for any ceremony or celebration. There's music for weddings called Manyalo.

QTwo weeks after Maramfa Musick Pro came out, Björk played "Bonkoko Bagana" during her set at the Venice Biennale. Where were you and what were you doing when you found out? What actually went through your head?

I was on my way from work when Tshepang Ramoba told me. But I don't know the artist.

Photo: Björk at the Venice Biennale (via Vogue)

QWhen you look ahead, what's the vision, for Mapanta as a sound, and for yourself as an artist? Where do you want this to go, and is that somewhere out in the world or back home in Ga-Sekhukhune?

I want Mapanta to be normal like other music genres. It should be known. Mapanta has been marginalized and mostly confined to Ga-Sekhukhune, so it's exciting that it's now going straight to the world. For me it's a big achievement. I thought it would stay in my village and not even spread beyond that.

Serokolo No. 7's debut album, Maramfa Musick Pro, is out now on Nyege Nyege Tapes.

Sources