Amaqhawe Omgqashiyo was the first release by Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens after their comeback in 1983. The group (known here as Mahlathini Nezintombi Zomgqashiyo - Mahlathini and the Girls of Mgqashiyo) was reunited by producers Rupert Bopape and West Nkosi - the main difference in the group was that of the Mahotella Queens; in 1971, the original group of five Queens (Hilda Tloubatla, Juliet Mazamisa, Ethel Mngomezulu, Nobesuthu Mbadu, and Mildred Mangxola) all left to care for their families, and an "understudy" group performed and recorded using their name. The understudy group recorded only a few albums, one of them Izibani Zomgqashiyo (1977), before disbanding shortly before the reunion of the original five Queens of the 1960s.