Meanings
- uncountableA genre of African music, a more danceable style of mbaqanga.
[…] an orgy of dance and mgqashiyo, which, literally translated, means "the beat that will never die."
1988, Coda, numbers 223-234, page 392 more examples
Recorded in the late '70s, with tough mgqashiyo mbaqanga out of favor among cultural as well as assimilationist blacks, this proves Mahlathini's staunch loyalty to the style he originated, his total lack of alternatives, or both.
1990, Robert Christgau, Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s, page 257As a producer and the saxophonist for the band Makgona Tsohle, he shaped the style called sax jive and then the music that grew out of it, called mbaqanga (named after a homemade stew) or mgqashiyo, "the indestructible beat."
1998, The New York Times Biographical Service, volume 29, page 1649
Cite this entry
mgqashiyo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mgqashiyo
“mgqashiyo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mgqashiyo. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mgqashiyo,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mgqashiyo.
Source: mgqashiyo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.