Dorothy Masuka dies

Sunday News Reporter
WORLD-RENOWNED jazz singer Dorothy Masuka has died. The Bulawayo-born singer died in South Africa yesterday where she was living.

The Old Pumula star was 83 years old. Her music got popular from the 1950s. A talent scout discovered her when she sang in a school concert and immediately signed her up. By the time she was 16, she had become a top recording star. She left Bulawayo for Johannesburg by train and it was during that journey that she composed the song Hamba Nontsokolo that launched her career as a professional musician and has since been regarded as a classic in South Africa.

A lot of Masuka’s performances were as a soloist accompanied by close-harmony groups and other big bands that featured in the 1950s. By composing her own songs that were inspired by events occurring in the South African townships in the 1950s, she provided a lot of insight into socio-political issues of township life. It was as result of this commentary that she left South Africa abruptly.

She had a stint in the UK and Zambia, before returning to independent Zimbabwe in 1981. She became a professional singer once again and only returned to South Africa after the release from prison of the first black President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, who was set free in 1990. Masuka’s death follows soon after the passing on of other luminaries in the arts, singer Oliver Mtukudzi and writer Charles Mungoshi.

— Additional reporting from online sources.