In the 1950s, Johannesburg’s townships were full of jazz, and one of the brightest young singers was a teenager from Bulawayo. Dorothy Masuka wrote and sang songs that were catchy, clever and, at times, politically dangerous. The apartheid government banned some of them, and she was forced into exile. She did not return home for decades, but her songs travelled the world.
Early life and Johannesburg
Masuka was born in 1935 in Bulawayo, in what was then Southern Rhodesia. She moved to South Africa as a child for schooling. As a teenager in Johannesburg, she began singing with bands and signed with Troubadour Records, one of the leading labels for Black South African music. She wrote many of her own songs, singing in Zulu, Ndebele, Xhosa and English. Her style blended jazz, marabi and African vocal traditions.
Banned, exiled and home
Some of her songs, including one that referred to apartheid leader D. F. Malan, were banned. Authorities saw her as a threat. From the early 1960s, she lived in exile, spending time in Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania, Britain and elsewhere. She supported liberation movements. Masuka was a friend and contemporary of Miriam Makeba, who recorded several of her songs.
She returned to Zimbabwe after independence in 1980 and later to South Africa after the end of apartheid.
Late career and legacy
In her later years, she performed at festivals and recorded new albums, delighting audiences who had grown up with her songs. She received honours in South Africa and Zimbabwe for her contribution to music and the liberation struggle. She died in Johannesburg in 2019, aged 83. She is remembered as one of the first African women to write and perform her own popular songs.
Johannesburg in the 1950s produced a remarkable generation of Black South African musicians, including Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and Abdullah Ibrahim. Masuka was one of the youngest and most original voices in that scene.
Political songs and her voice
She wrote songs about liberation leaders and events, which made her a target for the authorities but a hero to many listeners. In Zimbabwe, she is honoured as a national treasure and one of the country’s most important musicians. Her bright, playful singing style influenced generations of Southern African women singers. Dorothy Masuka wrote songs that a government thought were worth banning. She outlived that government, and the songs are still sung.
