STEVE BIKO

Steve Biko was born in King William’s Town, South Africa. He was the third child in an average family where his father was a clerk and his mother was a maid. Biko was not offered the opportunity to know his father because he died when Biko was only four years old. Steve Biko excelled in school as a youth but his political activities caused him to be expelled from Lovedale High School. Biko was still able to continue on to college where he received a scholarship to attend St. Francis College in Natal, a liberal Catholic boarding school. While in Medical School, Biko became involved in the NUSAS (National Union Of South African Students), a multiracial politically moderate organization.

It was while he was in Natal that Biko began truly questioning the apartheid system and the conditions that his people were forced to endure. Biko became more involved in the daily struggle that faced Blacks, and he decided to quit medical school.

In 1968, Steve Biko became the cofounder and first president of the all-Black South African Students’ Organization (SASO) The primary aim of the organization was to raise black consciousness in South Africa through lectures and community activities. Biko concluded that the apartheid system had a psychological effect on the Black population, which had caused Blacks to internalize and believe Whites’ racist stereotypes. According to Biko, Blacks had been convinced that they were inferior to Whites, which resulted in the hopelessness that was prevalent in the Black community. Biko preached Black solidarity to “break the chains of oppression”.

Biko’s political activities eventually drew the attention of the South African government resulting in him being banned in 1973. The banning restricted Biko from talking to more than one person a time in an attempt to suppress the rising political movement. The banning did not stop Biko’s commitment to activism. For the next four years, he continued to spread his message at gatherings and with his underground publication called "Frank Talk". During this period Biko was often harassed, arrested, and detained by the South African Police.

On August 18, 1977, Biko was seized by the police and detained under section 6 of the Terrorism Act. This draconian law had resulted in the loss of freedom of over 40,000 Blacks in South Africa since 1950. The law permitted the police to hold Biko in jail indefinitely, however the end of his term was due to his violent death, not freedom. Biko was held in prison for twenty-four days were he was interrogated, starved, and brutally beaten. It wasn’t until Biko was laying unconscious, that the doctors suggested that he be transported to Pretoria for medical treatment, 740 miles away. On September 12, 1977, Biko became the forty-first person in South Africa to die while being held in the custody of the South African Police.

The South African government claimed that Steve Biko’s death was caused by a hunger strike and claimed their innocence. The then Minister of Police, Jimmy Kruger, was quoted as saying crassly:

"Biko's death leaves me cold."

However, the official autopsy concluded that Biko’s death was due to brain lesion caused by the “application of force to the head”. The officers who were responsible for Biko while he was detained were absolved of any wrong doing by a South African court.

Biko’s tragic death had a great impact on the people of South Africa and stunned the world. His funeral was attended by more than 15,000 mourners, not including the thousands that were turned away by the police. Steve Biko’s legacy lives on through the struggle he helped to ignite and through the freedoms that South Africans now possess.

BUSI MHLONGO

Drawing on various South African styles such as mbaqanga, maskanda, marabi and traditional Zulu, fused with contemporary elements from jazz, funk, rock, gospel, rap, opera, reggae and West African music she produced a fresh and exciting sound. Her infectious music and singing style have a universal appeal and her lyrics carry powerful and poignant messages. In the 1960s, she adopted the artistic name Vickie; only later did she became known by Busi Mhlongo. She was an initiated sangoma, which heavily influenced her music.

Mhlongo has worked with other top African folk / pop artists, like Hugh Masekela, Dr. Philip Tabane, Mabe Thobejane, and many legends - Robert “Doc” Mthalane making meticulously produced, melodic and modern South African music.

Her work also spaned more urban styles, with several tracks on UrbanZulu being remixed for the dancefloor.

In 2000, Busi scooped three awards at the FNB South African Music Awards for best female artist, best adult contemporary album (Africa), and best African pop album. Busi has since also scored a KORA award and MELT has released a compilation called Indiza with two new tracks produced by Brice Wassy and a series of remixes by Club 3.30.

The first South African music Benefit concert was held by South African Broadcasting Corporation to celebrate Busi’s birthday and raise fund for her hospital bills, President Thabo Mbeki was one of the Honourable guests. Her album UrbanZulu was the very first time that Maskanda has been expressed by a Zulu woman commercially to an international audience.
Death

Busi had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment when she died on June 15, 2010. She was with her family, who still live at Ntuzuma, just outside Kwa Mashu.

RAY PHIRI

 

It has been indeed a long trip for Ray Phiri. From early days in Mpumalanga, where he was born and raised, where he used to dance to his troubadour father’s puppet shows. Ray had his first break when he, in 1962, managed to dance for the legendary Dark City Sisters when they performed in Mpumalanga. He made enough money giving him a chance to travel to Johannesburg.

He became founder member of the soul music giants of the 1970’s, the Cannibals which were later joined by the late Mpharanyana. When the Cannibals disbanded Ray founded Stimela, with whom he conceived gold and platinum-winning albums like Fire, Passion and Ecstacy, Look, Listen and Decide as well as the controversial People Don’t Talk So Let’s Talk.

It came as no surprise when one of their most memorable tracks Whispers in the Deep was restricted for broadcast by the old South African Broadcasting Corporation. In fact, this contributed heavily to Ray and Stimela’s popularity.




It was in the early 1990’s that American singer and musician Paul Simon asked Ray along with Ladysmith Black Mambazo to join his Graceland project, which was successful but also helped the South Africans to make names for themselves abroad. Ray was to collaborate with Paul Simon again on Simon’s Rhythm of the Saints album, which saw him perform on stages such as Central Park and Madison Square Garden as well as appearing on top television shows in the US.

Ray has subsequently released a solo album, and has been active in education and cultural work, especially in his home province of Mapumalanga. His Mapumalanga based studio and production house have also had a hand in several productions.

Commencing 2003, Ray has been playing a part in a revitalised Stimela, who aim to take to the road in South Africa later in 2003.

Instrumentation:
vocals, guitar
Genre: African Jazz, fusion, mbaqanga

CHRIS HANI

Hani was born on 28 June 1942 in the small town of Cofimvaba in a rural village called kuSabalele Transkei. He was the fifth of six children. He attended Lovedale school and later studied modern and classical literature at the University of Fort Hare. Hani, in an interview on the Wankie campaign, also mentions that he is a Rhodes University graduate.
 

Political career

At age 15 Hani joined the ANC Youth League. As a student he was active in protests against the Bantu Education Act. Following his graduation, he joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the armed wing of the ANC. Following his arrest under the Suppression of Communism Act, he went into exile in Lesotho in 1963.
He received military training in the Soviet Union and served in campaigns in the Rhodesian Bush War in what is now Zimbabwe. Though the combined operations of MK and ZIPRA in the late 1960s were a military failure, they consolidated Hani’s reputation as a brave soldier of the first black army to take the field against aparthied. His role as a fighter from the earliest days of MK’s exile (following the arrest of Nelson Mandela and the other internal MK leaders at Rivonia) was an important part in the fierce loyalty Hani enjoyed later as MK’s commander. In Lesotho he was the target of assassination attempts, and he eventually moved to the ANC’s headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. As head of Umkhonto we Sizwe, he was responsible for the suppression of a mutiny by dissident ANC members in detention camps, but denied any role in abuses including torture and murder.

Having spent time as a clandestine organiser in South Africa in the mid-1970s, he permanently returned to South Africa following the unbanning of the ANC in 1990, and took over from Joe Slovo as head of the South African Communist Party in 1991. He supported the suspension of the ANC’s armed struggle in favour of negotiations. However, he stated that he would not rule out violence in a speech on National television shortly before his death.
 

Assassination

Chris Hani was assassinated on 10 April 1993 outside his home in Dawn Park, a racially-mixed suburb of Boksburg. He was accosted by a Polish far-right immigrant named Janusz Waluś, who shot him in the head as he stepped out of his car. Waluś fled the scene, but was arrested soon afterwards after Hani’s neighbour, a white woman, called the police. Clive Derby-Lewis, a senior South African Conservative Party M.P., who had lent Waluś his pistol, was also arrested for complicity in Hani’s murder.
Hani’s assassination was part of a plot by the far-right in South Africa to derail the negotiations to end apartheid.
Historically, the assassination is seen as a turning point. Serious tensions followed the assassination, with fears that the country would erupt in violence. Nelson Mandela addressed the nation appealing for calm, in a speech regarded as ‘presidential’ even though he was not yet president of the country:
“     Tonight I am reaching out to every single South African, black and white, from the very depths of my being. A white man, full of prejudice and hate, came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know, and bring to justice, this assassin. The cold-blooded murder of Chris Hani has sent shock waves throughout the country and the world. ... Now is the time for all South Africans to stand together against those who, from any quarter, wish to destroy what Chris Hani gave his life for – the freedom of all of us.     ”

While riots did follow the assassination, the two sides of the negotiation process were galvanised into action, and they soon agreed that democratic elections should take place on 27 April 1994, just over a year after Hani’s assassination.
Assassins’ conviction and amnesty hearing

Both Janusz Waluś and Clive Derby-Lewis were sentenced to death for the murder. Clive Derby-Lewis’s wife Gaye Derby-Lewis, also a senior Conservative Party figure, was acquitted. The two men’s sentences were commuted to life imprisonment when the death penalty was abolished as a result of a Constitutional Court ruling in 1995.

Hani’s killers appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, claiming political motivation for their crimes and applying for amnesty on the basis that they had acted on the orders of the Conservative Party. The Hani family was represented by anti-apartheid lawyer George Bizos. Their applications were denied when the TRC ruled that they were not acting on orders. They are still in prison, parole having been denied most recently by the Cape High Court on 17 March 2009.
Conspiracy theories surrounding assassination

Hani’s assassination has attracted numerous conspiracy theories about outside involvement. The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, however, said that it “was unable to find evidence that the two murderers convicted of the killing of Chris Hani took orders from international groups, security forces or from higher up in the right-wing echelons.”

LETTA MBULU

Names: Mbulu, Letta 

Born: Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa

In summary: Letta Mbulu was born in Soweto and, during her teens, she toured South Africa and then England with the musical King Kong. She returned to South Africa at

Letta Mbulu was born in Soweto and, during her teens, she toured South Africa and then England with the musical King Kong. She returned to South Africa at the end of the tour but was soon forced into exile in the United States. While in the states she was invited to tour with Cannonball Adderly and soon thereafter joined forces with Harry Belafonte. Her relationship with Harry Belafonte became a rewarding musical venture that took Letta on several world tours. She married a fellow South African musician, Caiphus Semenya, whom she met while touring with King Kong and together they released many hits.

She has been a member of the prestigious Union of South African Artists, where she became exposed to folk, American Jazz and Brazilian music, and has worked with the likes of Michael Jackson. She also acted in the film Roots for which she received an Emmy award. Her other screen appearances include A warm December with Sidney Pottier and The Colour Purple. She is a founding member of the South African Artists United (SAAU) an organisation which was established in 1986. This organisation launched the musical Buwa that carried a political and historical theme with Letta in the leading role.

On their return to South Africa, Letta and Caiphus performed in the Unity ‘91 Festival that marked the first time they had shared a stage with other fellow musicians on home soil. In 1992 she released a new album entitled Not Yet Uhuru. The album was Letta’s first to be recorded in South Africa since her return and it was arranged and produced by her multi-talented husband Caiphus.

SAMORA MACHEL

Samora Moisés Machel (September 29,1933-19 Octobre 1986),was a prominent leader of Frelimo and dedicated military man.He presided over the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975 and became its first president.


Samora Moisés Machel was born in 1933 in the village of Chilembene, Mozambique, to a poor family. He studied in Catholic school but eventually begun to work against Portuguese colonial rule. 1962 Machel joined left-wing FRELIMO guerilla movement and received military training. He became leader of FRELIMO on 1968. On 1969 he became its president.

Mozambique became independent in the aftermath of Portugal military coup in 1974. FRELIMO took over in Mozambique in June 25 1975. Machel became the president. He advocated the formation of society based on Marxist ideals.

Machel had to face economical troubles and side effects of the Rhodesian civil war. Mozambique was economically dependent of South Africa with its hostile Apartheid government and had to fight Renamo guerilla movement they supported. Soviet economic aid was sporadic. At the same time he supported African National Congress and allowed South African and Rhodesian rebels train in Mozambique. He remained a popular ruler.

On October 19, 1986 Machel was on his way back from an international meeting in Lusaka in Tupolev 134 plane when the plane crashed into the hillside in the Lebombo Mountains. 10 people survived but Machel and 33 others died, some of them members of his government. The accident was attributed to the error of Russian pilot but there has been speculation of complicity of South African security forces and that the plane had been intentionally diverted by a false navigational beacon signal.

Machel's successor was Joaquim Chissano.

His widow, Graça Machel, would later marry Nelson Mandela.

www.africansuccess.org

DONNA SUMMER

LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948 – May 17, 2012), known by the stage name Donna Summer, was an American singer-songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She had a mezzo-soprano vocal range, and was a five-time Grammy Award winner. Summer was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one on the U.S. Billboard chart, and she also charted four number-one singles in the United States within a 13-month period.

Summer died on May 17, 2012. The Associated Press reports that she died in the morning at her home in Key West, Florida at age 63 following a battle with cancer. The Bradenton Herald quotes “Sarasota County records” stating that she lived in Englewood, Florida at the time of her death. The reference did not state the place of her death.

Early life and career

Summer was born Ladonna Adrian Gaines on December 31, 1948 in Boston, Massachusetts to parents Andrew and Mary Gaines and was one of seven children. She and her family were raised in the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester. Her father, Andrew Gaines, was a butcher, and her mother Mary, was a schoolteacher. Summer’s mother later recalled that from the time she could talk, Summer would often sing: “She literally loved to sing. She used to go through the house singing, singing. She sang for breakfast and for lunch and for supper.”

Summer’s performance debut occurred at church when she was ten, when she replaced a vocalist that had failed to show up. Her priest invited Summer to perform, judging from her small frame and voice that she would be an “amusing spectacle”, but instead Summer’s voice recalled a voice older than her years and frame. Summer herself recalled that as she sang, “I started crying, everybody else started crying. It was quite an amazing moment in my life and at some point after I heard my voice came out I felt like God was saying to me ‘Donna, you’re going to be very, very famous’ and I knew from that day on that I would be famous.”

Summer later attended Boston’s Jeremiah E. Burke High School, where she performed in school musicals and was considered popular. She was also something of a troublemaker, skipping home to attend parties, circumventing her parents’ strict curfew. In 1967, just weeks before graduation, Summer left for New York where she was a member of the blues-rock band, Crow. After they were passed by every record label, they agreed to break up. Summer stayed in New York and auditioned for a role in the counterculture musical, Hair. When Melba Moore was cast in the part, Summer agreed to take the role in the Munich production of the show. She moved to Munich after getting her parents’ reluctant approval.

Summer remained in Munich and later learned fluent German. She participated in the musicals Ich Bin Ich (the German version of The Me Nobody Knows), Godspell and Show Boat. Within three years, she moved to Vienna, Austria and joined the Viennese Folk Opera. She briefly toured with an ensemble vocal group called FamilyTree, the creation of producer Guenter “Yogi” Lauke. In 1971, Summer released her first single, a cover of The Jaynetts’ “Sally Go ‘Round the Roses”, from a one-off European deal with Decca Records. In 1972, she issued the single, “If You Walkin’ Alone” on Philips. In 1974, she married Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer and had a daughter, Mimi, the following year. Citing marital problems caused by her affair with German artist (and future live-in boyfriend) Peter Mühldorfer, she divorced Helmuth. She kept his last name, but Anglicised it to “Summer”. She provided backing vocals on producer-keyboardist Veit Marvos on his 1972 Ariola records release, Nice To See You, credited as “Gayn Pierre”. Several subsequent singles included Summer performing with the group, but she often denied singing on any of the Marvos releases. The name “Gayn Pierre” was also used by Donna while performing in Godspell with Helmuth Sommer during 1972.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org

BRA ZIM NGQAWANA

Zim Ngqawana(25 December 1959 – 10 May 2011) first made his mark at the historic inauguration of President Nelson Mandela in 1994, where he directed the 100 person ‘Drums for Peace Orchestra’, led an elite group of 12 Presidential drummers and featured as a solo saxophonist.

This recognition came after a late start and some tough struggles. Born in 1959 in Port Elizabeth (in South Africa’s Eastern Cape), Zim was the youngest of five children and started playing flute at the age of 21. Although Zim was forced to drop out of school before completing university entrance requirements, his prowess won him a place at Rhodes University. He later went on to study for a diploma in Jazz Studies at the University of Natal. Working with the University’s ensemble, ‘The Jazzanians’, he attended the International Association of Jazz Educators convention
in the United States and was offered scholarships to the Max Roach / Wynton Marsalis jazz workshop and subsequently a Max Roach scholarship to the University of Massachusetts, where he studied with jazz legends Archie Shepp and Yusef Lateef.

Since his return to South Africa in the 1990’s he has worked in the bands of veteran greats like Abdullah Ibrahim and Hugh Masekela. He has also devoted much time and effort into building up a number of small and large combos from the conventional quartet / quintet including his 8 piece band ‘Ingoma’ through to the ‘Drums for Peace Orchestra’. Zim is committed to developing and creating an audience for new South African jazz. His music draws on influences ranging from South Africa’s folk and rural traditions to Indian and western classical music, world music and the avant-garde. Grounded in his South African roots, the music is strongly percussive, improvisational and highly danceable.

Alongside numerous major festival appearances in South Africa, in 1993 he appeared as the guest artist with Paul Van Kemenade and his ensemble, at the Tilburg Festival in front of a large and enthusiastic Dutch audience. In 1995 he toured the United States with his band ‘Ingoma’ and appeared at the historic Black History Week in Chicago. Zim has toured America, Africa, Israel and Europe and has played with greats including Max Roach, Keith Tippett, Dennis Mpale, Andile Yenana, Herbie Tsoaeli, Kevin Gibson, Valerie Naranjo, Bjorn Ole Solburg and his Norweigan San Ensemble to name a few.

“San Song” was released by Sheer Sound in South Africa 1997, to critical acclaim. Licensed from NOR-CD and recorded in Norway, the album comprises original compositions by Zim Ngqawana and Bjorn Ole Solberg. The music is deeply rooted in the folk based jazz traditions of Norway and South Africa. ‘San Song’ features South Africans Zim Ngqawana, Andile Yenana and Norwegians Bjorn Ole Solberg, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love.

“Zimology”, the first solo release by Zim, illustrates his uncanny ability as a musician, composer and fine saxophonist. Recorded in Norway along with two of the original members of San and Zim’s long time pianist Andile Yenana, ‘Zimology’ once again established him as the undoubted king of South African avant-garde jazz music, a genre that he has embraced whole heartedly, unlike numerous of his contemporaries. The album is dedicated to a number of his influences including Yusef Latef, Archie Shepp and Pharaoh Sanders whom he studied and played with while on a Wynston Marsalis scholarship at the Max Roach Institute of Jazz in Massachusetts. He also pays tribute to local jazz legend Mongezi Feza (Blue Notes and Brotherhood of Breath) with the track “You Think You Know Me”.
“Zimology” incorporates many influences from traditional Xhosa rhythms and songs to the more ‘way out’ form of jazz expressionism.

Zim released his second solo project “The Zimphonic Suites” in 2001. Few knew that this recording would produce such a definitive artist album. Following in the footsteps of “Zimology” the reedman manages to fuse the ancient rhythms and songs of Africa with his interpretations of modern jazz music.
The album moves beyond jazz and deals with expression only, as it is supposed to serve a broader purpose by suggesting jazz, classical and other western forms before departing from them.

“Zimphonic Suites” was nominated for an impressive 5 South African Music Awards, the most nominations received by any artist ever for this major awards ceremony. He managed to scoop three awards out of the five nominations including the very prestigious “Best Male Artist”.

Zim Ngqawana’s latest album “Vadzimu” has caused a stir with lovers of good music worldwide. In the words of www.allboutjazz.com – “Vadzimu is a masterpiece!”

In his inimitable style, Zim has produced an album that will remind fans of his legendary prowess as a musician and a producer, and will be sure to draw legions of new followers. Featured guests include Andile Yenana (piano), Marcus Wyatt (trumpet & flugelhorn), Lulu Gontsana and Kesivan Naidoo (drums).

“Vadzimu” is a concept album divided into various sections. The first section of the album “Satire” is a tribute to our own South African heritage and it is expressed in track 3 ‘Gumboot Dance, which conjures up images of our mineworkers.
Zim has reworked Abdullah Ibrahim’s song Tafelberg, and has renamed it Tafelberg / Carnival Samba. He also re-arranged the South African national anthem Nkosi Sikeleli Afrika. The last section “Nocturnes” is a collection of piano pieces played by Zim himself.

“Vadzimu” managed to secure Zim two further SAMA awards and an amazing amount of critical acclaim, scooping the very prestigious “Best Male Artist” as well as “Best Jazz Album” categories that year, no small feat in a country where jazz is a popular and hotly contested music form!

http://www.3dfamily.org

MAMA MIRIAM MAKEBA

Miriam Makeba
4 March 1932 - 10 November 2008

Miriam was born in Johannesburg. As a young girl of thirteen, she entered a talent show at a missionary school and walked off with the first prize. She was often invited to sing at weddings, and her popularity grew in leaps and bounds as more and more people became dazzled by her talent. In 1952 she was chosen to sing for The Manhattan Brothers and toured South Africa with them. As early as 1956, she wrote and released the song "Pata Pata".

She received invitations to visit Europe and America, where she came to the attention of Harry Belafonte and Steve Allen and was capitulated to stardom. 1959 saw her becoming the first South African to win a Grammy award for the album 'An Evening with Harry Belafonte & Miriam Makeba'.

Miriam became an exile in 1960 when South Africa banned her from returning to her birth country - she was deemed to be too dangerous and revolutionary - this was after she had appeared in an anti-apartheid documentary, entitled "Come Back Africa", and this upset the then white apartheid government of South Africa. Miriam only returned to South Africa thirty years later.

In 1967, more than ten years after she wrote the song, "Pata Pata" was released in the United States and became a hit worldwide. It has since been re-recorded by numerous international artists. Miriam was a darling of the American public, but they turned against her when she married the radical black activist, Stokely Carmichael, in 1968. Once again, she was at the receiving end of a dissatisfied and disgruntled country. Although the United States never banned her, her US concerts and recording contracts were suddenly cancelled.

She moved back to Africa, this time to Guinea where she was welcomed with open arms. Miriam continued to record songs and toured intensively. She was well respected by the government of Guinea and was asked to address the United Nations General Assembly as a Guinean delegate. She twice addressed the General Assembly, speaking out against the evils of apartheid.

Although always regarding herself as a singer and not as a politician, Miriam's fearless humanitarianism has earned her many International awards, including the 1986 Dag Hammerskjold Peace Prize and the UNESCO Grand Prix du Conseil International de la Musique. Makeba is also known for having inspired an enduring fashion in the 60's when the slogan "black is beautiful" was launched:

"I see other black women imitate my style, which is no style at all, but just letting our hair be itself. They call it the Afro Look."

She was received by such world leaders as Hailé Selassie, Fidel Castro, John F. Kennedy and François Mitterrand. She has toured with singers such as Paul Simon, Nina Simone, Hugh Masekela and Dizzy Gillepsie. The ban on her records was lifted in South Africa in 1988 and she returned to her homeland in December 1990. Four years later she started a charity project to raise funds to protect women in South Africa. Her first concert in South Africa (1991) was a huge success and this was a prelude for a world-wide tour which included the USA and Europe.

She has released over thirty albums over the years, and her powerful and distinctive voice retains the clarity and range that enable it to be both forceful as a protest march and as poignant as an African lullaby.

Miriam was MamaAfrica, a lady with a special touch. She has weathered many storms in her life, including several car accidents, a plane crash and even cancer. She remained as active in her latter years as she did as a young girl with stars in her eyes.

On 9 November 2008, she became ill while taking part in a concert being held in Castel Volturno, Italy. Miriam suffered a heart attack after singing her most famous song "Pata Pata", and was rushed to a clinic where doctors were unable to revive her.

Her exceptional personal and artistic achievements were part of the history of the 20th century, and the dramatic elements of her extraordinary life made Miriam Makeba a living legend.

SOURCE: ZAR.co.za

BABA CREDO VUSAMAZULU MUTWA

Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa, born on 21 July 1921 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa is a Zulu Sangoma (traditional healer) and High Sanusi. He is well known and respected for his work in nature conservation, and as an author of ground breaking books on African mythology and spiritual beliefs. Some of his work has led to him being seen as an outcast by fellow Sangoma’s or traditional healers, and even the larger African community in South Africa.

 
EARLY LIFE

His father was a widower with three surviving children when he met his mother. His father was a builder and a Christian and his mother was a young Zulu girl. Caught between Catholic missionaries on one hand, and a stubborn old Zulu warrior, Credo’s maternal grandfather, his parents had no choice but to separate. Credo Mutwa was born out of wedlock which caused a great scandal in the village and his mother was thrown out by her father. Later she was taken in by one of her aunts.

He was subsequently raised by his father’s brother and was taken to the South Coast of Natal, near the northern bank of the Umkumazi River. He did not attend school until he was 14 years old. In 1935 his father found a building job in the old Transvaal province and the whole family relocated to where he was building. In 1937 he experienced a great shock and trauma when he was seized and sodomized by a gang of mineworkers outside a mine compound. After this he was ill for a long time.

Where Christian doctors had failed, his grandfather, a man whom his father despised as a heathen and demon worshipper, helped him back to health. At this point Credo began to question many of the things about his people the missionaries would have them believe. “Were we Africans really a race of primitives who possessed no knowledge at all before the white man came to Africa?” he asked himself. His grandfather instilled in him the belief that his illness was a sacred sign that he was to become a shaman, a healer. He underwent initiation from one of his grandfather’s daughters, young sangoma named Myrna.

Quote: Credo Mutwa: “I wish to appeal to the world. First, I am not a quack or a charlatan or a sensationalist. I am an old man who has seen much. I wish the world to know that there is a faint ray of hope that emanates from South Africa.”

This section contains a short autobiography of Credo Mutwa. It was originally published on a website which does not exist any more. As far as I can tell this is true in the sense of his philosophy and his vision.

BOB MARLEY

Bob Marley - Early Life

Bob Marley was born Robert Nesta Marley on February 6, 1945, to 50-year old white quartermaster Captain Norval Marley of the British West Indian Regiment and an eighteen-year old black Jamaican woman, Cedella Malcolm. Bob's early life was spent in rural community of Nine Miles, nestled in the mountainous terrain of the parish of St. Ann. Residents of Nine Miles have preserved many customs derived from their African ancestry especially the art of storytelling as a means of sharing the past and time-tested traditions that are oftentimes overlooked in official historical sources. The proverbs, fables and various chores associated with rural life that were inherent to Bob's childhood would provide a deeper cultural context and an aura of mysticism to his adult songwriting.

Norval and Cedella married in 1945 but Captain Marley's family strongly disapproved of their union; although the elder Marley provided financial support, the last time Bob Marley saw his father was when he was five years old; at that time, Norval took his son to Kingston to live with his nephew, a businessman, and to attend school. Eighteen months later Cedella learned that Bob wasn't going to school and was living with an elderly couple. Alarmed, she went to Kingston, found Bob and brought him home to Nine Miles.

Bob Marley begins his music career

The next chapter in the Bob Marley biography commenced in the late 1950s when Bob, barely into his teens, left St. Ann and returned to Jamaica's capital. He eventually settled in the western Kingston vicinity of Trench Town, so named because it was built over a sewage trench. A low-income community comprised of squatter-settlements and government yards developments that housed a minimum of four families, Bob Marley quickly learned to defend himself against Trench Town's rude boys and bad men. Bob's formidable street-fighting skills earned him the respectful nickname Tuff Gong.

Despite the poverty, despair and various unsavory activities that sustained some ghetto dwellers, Trench Town was also a culturally rich community where Bob Marley's abundant musical talents were nurtured. A lifelong source of inspiration, Bob immortalized Trench Town in his songs "No Woman No Cry" (1974), "Trench Town Rock" (1975) and "Trench Town", the latter released posthumously in 1983.

By the early 1960s the island's music industry was beginning to take shape, and its development gave birth to an indigenous popular Jamaican music form called ska. A local interpretation of American soul and R&B, with an irresistible accent on the offbeat, ska exerted a widespread influence on poor Jamaican youth while offering a welcomed escape from their otherwise harsh realities. Within the burgeoning Jamaican music industry, the elusive lure of stardom was now a tangible goal for many ghetto youths.

Uncertain about the prospects of a music career for her son, Cedella encouraged Bob to pursue a trade. When Bob left school at 14 years old she found him a position as a welder's apprentice, which he reluctantly accepted. After a short time on the job a tiny steel splinter became embedded in Bob's eye. Following that incident, Bob promptly quit welding and solely focused on his musical pursuits.

At 16 years old Bob Marley met another aspiring singer Desmond Dekker, who would go on to top the UK charts in 1969 with his single "Israelites". Dekker introduced Marley to another young singer, Jimmy Cliff, future star of the immortal Jamaican film "The Harder They Come", who, at age 14, had already recorded a few hit songs. In 1962 Cliff introduced Marley to producer Leslie Kong; Marley cut his first singles for Kong: "Judge Not", "Terror" and "One More Cup of Coffee", a cover of the million selling country hit by Claude Gray. When these songs failed to connect with the public, Marley was paid a mere $20.00, an exploitative practice that was widespread during the infancy of Jamaica's music business. Bob Marley reportedly told Kong he would make a lot of money from his recordings one day but he would never be able to enjoy it. Years later, when Kong released a best of The Wailers compilation against the group's wishes, he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 37. 

Source: www.bobmarley.com

MOSES MOLELEKWA

 

BORN to a musical family in Thembisa township, Molelekwa studied music at FUBA college, where he was acknowledged as "Student of the Year" in 1987, at the age of 15. Born and raised under Apartheid, Molelekwa entered the public consciousness as one of the "new" South African musicians on the post-Apartheid stage.

During 1991 and 1992, he performed and composed as a member of the bands "Brotherhood" and "Umbongo", and won acknowledgement when both of these groups won "Best Jazz Group" category of the (then) Gilbeys Music of Africa Competition. Still in his teens, he worked alongside recently-returned exiles such as Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa and Miriam Makeba.

In 1994, he recorded for British label B&W / MELT, as part of the "Outernational Meltdown" project, a concept which included top Latin, African and Caribbean artists. This paved the way for his own recording with the MELT 2000 label, and his debut album - "Finding Oneself" was released to international acclaim in 1995. The album was further acknowledged, winning both "Best Traditional Jazz" and "Best Contemporary Jazz" categories at the 1996 SAMA / FNB music awards.

Molelekwa toured, performed and interacted widely, including appearances at the Fin de Siecle Festival, in Nantes, France in 1997.

"Genes and Spirits", his second album for the MELT label was released in 1998, consolidating a meteoric rise. In 1999 he performed in both Denmark and the Netherlands, and won the "Best Contemporary Jazz Album" SAMA award.

During 2000 he appeared at the Cape Town edition of the North Sea Jazz Festival, and also assembled a show titled "Collaboration" with long time musical associates Vusi Khumalo and Jimmy Dludlu. His appearances with British concert pianist Joanna MacGregor won him new audiences in both South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Moses Molelekwa and his wife, Flo Mtoba passed away tragically in Johannesburg on 13 February 2001.

Instrumentation:

piano

Genre: African Jazz, jazz

SOURCE: http://www.music.org.za