In the groove : Africa's talented famous songstresses

By Fred Zindi | Jul. 21, 2024

Singer/songwriter, Dorothy Masuka, popularly known as ‘Auntie Dot’, was born in Bulawayo on the September 3, 1935. Zimbabwe at that time was called southern Rhodesia. Her father was originally from Zambia and he worked as a chef at a hotel in Bulawayo. Her mother was Zulu. Dorothy was the fourth of seven children.

In Africa, the accomplishments of women in music have always been against all odds in a field that has historically neither welcomed nor appreciated them.

The illustrious musical lineage of famous African songstresses (or female singers) whom I shall call ‘Mama Africas’ — the likes of South Africa’s Miriam Makeba, Dorothy Masuka, Letta Mbulu, Brenda Fassie, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Angelique Kidjo from The Republic of Benin, Cape Verde’s Cesaria Evora and Mali’s Oumou Sangare could be defined by the strength of their voices, their rich and colourful cultural pedigree and their duty to preserve what has been handed over to them through centuries of toil, conflict and creative resilience.

Let us look at these divas one by one. The first three have passed on and two are still alive.

We begin with:

Dorothy Masuka from Zimbabwe:

At the age of 12, she and her family moved to South Africa where she attended a Catholic school in Johannesburg. Soon, her talent as a singer was spotted during school concerts. She fell in love with jazz music as well as South African kwela and marabi music. At one time when Dorothy was only 16, she ran away from her boarding school to join Philemon Magotsi’s band called African Ink Spots. Her school and her parents were upset by this move as they wanted her to continue with school, but she went back for a short while and then left again for Bulawayo where she pursued her career as a singer. It was on her way back to Johannesburg that she penned the hit song Hamba Notsokolo.

At the age of 19 she was invited to audition for Troubador Record Company in South Africa and she was successful. That became the first rung for her ladder to fame as she was soon to join another popular female singer known as Dolly Rathebe.

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At the age of 20, she joined a black musical revue in South Africa, which included the famous Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. They called themselves African Jazz and Variety. This is the period when Dorothy wrote many hit songs such as Pata Pata, Kulala, Khauleza, Khuteni Zulu and Ndizulu Zule Goli and Makeba is known to have used some of these hits in her later recordings and performances.

Masuka’s music became very popular in South Africa throughout the 1950s, but when the songs became more serious the South African apartheid government began to question her. Her song Dr Malan was banned by the authorities. In 1961, while in Bulawayo, she also wrote a song for Patrice Lumumba who was a political activist in the Congo. It was this song which forced her into exile when the Special Branch in Bulawayo advised her not to return to southern Rhodesia. Dorothy fled to Malawi and then to Tanzania between 1961 and 1965. In 1965, she went back to Bulawayo, but had to flee again, this time into Zambia where she met fellow Zimbabweans, Simangaliso Tuthani Chris Chabuka and Andrew Chakanyuka who had formed the Broadway Quartet band. She stayed in Zambia until Zimbabwe became independent in 1980. In 1982 she went back to Johannesburg where she released the album MaGumede. She returned to Zimbabwe and did some more recordings of songs such as Nhingirikiri and Gona raMachingura in the late 1980’s. These became instant hits in Zimbabwe. In 2001 she released Mzilikazi and followed this up with a tour of London and New York accompanied by the Mahotella Queens in 2002.

In 2002 when she toured England, she had audiences sweating and panting at the jam-packed venues in cities such as London, Manchester, Coventry, Bristol and Birmingham. During her tour, she also appeared on English radio and television programmes such as the ‘Big World Café’, Global Beat Box, Charlie Gillet’s Capital Radio Show, Women’s Hour, BBC Radio 4, Jazz FM, BBC African Service, and Andy Kershaw’s BBC Radio 1 Show, Jo Shinner’s show on Greater London Radio and many other shows.

When she toured Europe the same year, European audiences were treated to nights to remember by this charismatic female African artist. One promoter who had hired her to perform at the Milkweg in Amsterdam and at the Nijmegen Music Centre confessed that at first he was scared of bringing Miss Masuka to these venues which are often frequented by youngsters aged between 18 and 30. He said he thought he was taking a big risk by presenting this rather oldish African singer to hip-hop fans in the Netherlands, but he was wrong. The kids loved it. The promoter then took her to Switzerland where she performed at the Dolce Vita where he was also scared that his teenage Swiss audiences would walk out. No! They loved it. Although she was a Jazz musician, she studied her audiences carefully. At one of the concerts, she sang Elvis Presley’s Rock’n’Roll song, You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog, Barking All The Time and crossed over in a medley to Que Sera Sera. The young audience just loved it. They did not expect that to come from an African female singer who had been advertised as a jazz artiste.

Auntie Dot died in Johannesburg on the 23rd February, 2019 due to ill-health.

Zenzile Miriam Makeba from South Africa (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afro pop, jazz and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.

Born in Johannesburg, Makeba was forced to find employment as a child after the death of her father. She had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer. Her vocal talent had been recognised when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music. In 1959, Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City. In London, she met the American singer, Harry Belafonte, who became a mentor and colleague. She moved to New York city, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960. Her attempt to return to South Africa that year for her mother’s funeral was prevented by the country’s government.

Makeba’s career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being Pata Pata (1967). Along with Belafonte, she received a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording for their 1965 album: An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement. She married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968, and consequently lost support among white Americans. Her visa was revoked by the US government when she was travelling abroad, forcing her and Carmichael to relocate to Guinea. She continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations. She began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song Soweto Blues, written by her former husband, Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising. After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina. She was named an FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 1999 and campaigned for humanitarian causes. She died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.

Upon her death, former South African President, Nelson Mandela said that “her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.”

Brenda Nokuzola Fassie from South Africa:

Brenda Nokuzola Fassie was born on 3rd of November 1964 in Langa, a township near Cape Town. She was named after the American country singer Brenda Lee. The daughter of a pianist, Brenda began singing to her mother’s accompaniment at a very young age, and already at the age of five, she had tourists paying to hear her sing. She already had her first band at this stage, the Tiny Tots. When she was about 16 years old, renowned producer Koloi Lebona came from Johannesburg to visit the Fassies Langa home after a number of Cape Town musicians had told him about Brenda. Lebona confirmed their high regard for the young Brenda, saying that her voice was very mature for her age and was ‘the voice of the future.’

Brenda went to live with Lebona’s family in Soweto, where she was supposed to finish school before beginning a music career. But when one of the singers of the singing trio Joy went on maternity leave, Brenda filled in for her. After her contract with Joy expired, she made an appearance on the Blondie and Papa Road show before forming her popular group, Brenda and the Big Dudes. Her first recording was made in 1983 with the hit single Weekend Special, which became the fastest-selling record at the time. The song enjoyed great international popularity, and Brenda and the Big Dudes toured to the United States, Britain, Europe, Australia and Brazil. Throughout the decade Brenda also established herself as a great solo pop star. In the late 1980s, she began working with producer Sello “Chicco” Twala, a partnership that proved to be one of the most successful in the South African music business. The album Too Late for Mama, which was born from this duo, achieved platinum status in 1989.

During this time, Brenda’s personal life was widely publicised. In 1989, she married Nhlanhla Mlambo, and the next year they were both sued for fraud. In August of 1990, newspapers announced the break-up of their marriage. Her drug and alcohol abuse as well as her bisexuality also received much media attention. Her drug habits hampered her music career until she went to a drug rehabilitation centre in 1995.

The next year, she made a comeback to the music industry as the producer of her album Now is the Time, which featured two duets with Democratic Republic of Congo music legend, Papa Wemba. Rumours of her downfall as pop star were proven wrong with her releases over the next years, especially the 1998 album Memeza, for which she teamed up with Chicco once again. The album became the best-selling South African release of the year and earned her numerous South African Music Awards (SAMAs). In 1999, she received the Kora award for the best female artist. Her next album, Nomakanjani, reached triple platinum status within a few months of its release.

In 2001, Time magazine featured a three page special on Brenda, calling her “The Madonna of the Townships”. This is proof of her international popularity. During the last few years of her life she regularly toured the African continent as well as America.

On April 26 2004, Fassie was rushed to a Johannesburg hospital with cardiac arrest. Although doctors resuscitated her, she slipped into a coma. For two weeks, fans all over the country held prayer services and supported her, her friends and family. On May 9 she died.

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