Arts + Culture
Gerard Sekoto: the South African painter of township life who died in Paris
Gerard Sekoto, born in 1913, painted vivid scenes of township life in Sophiatown and District Six in the…
exile
Music
Mohammed Wardi: Sudan’s great singer, Nubian voice and voice of protest
Mohammed Wardi, born in Nubia in northern Sudan in 1932, became the most celebrated singer in Sudan, singing…
Music
Dorothy Masuka: the Zimbabwean-born singer whose songs were banned by apartheid
Dorothy Masuka, born in Bulawayo in 1935, became a star in 1950s Johannesburg with songs in Zulu, Ndebele…
Music
Waldemar Bastos: the Angolan singer of exile and longing
Waldemar Bastos, born in Angola in 1954, left his homeland in 1982 during the civil war. His 1998…
Music
Jonas Gwangwa: the trombonist who scored Cry Freedom and led the ANC’s cultural army
Jonas Gwangwa was a founding member of the Jazz Epistles in the 1950s, led the ANC's Amandla cultural…
Arts + Culture
His songs got him exiled from Côte d’Ivoire: Tiken Jah Fakoly, Françafrique and a concert for every school
Ivorian reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly, born Doumbia Moussa in Odienné, released his internationally successful album Françafrique in…
Arts + Culture
Exiled from Soweto, she became the voice of Roots: Letta Mbulu
South African singer Letta Mbulu toured with the musical King Kong as a teenager and left for the…
Arts + Culture
A track athlete in exile recorded Angola 72 in Rotterdam. Bonga’s voice became the sound of Angolan longing
Bonga, born Barceló de Carvalho, was a record-breaking Angolan athlete in Portugal before he became a singer. In…
Arts + Culture
An exiled South African trumpeter had America’s number one song in 1968. The story of “Grazing in the Grass”
In July 1968, Hugh Masekela's instrumental "Grazing in the Grass" went to number one on the Billboard Hot…