Father of South African jazz Hugh Masekela dies aged 78
JOHANNESBURG, (Reuters) - Trumpeter and singer Hugh Masekela, known as the “father of South African jazz” who used his music in the fight against apartheid, has died from prostate cancer, his family said on Tuesday. He was 78.
In a career spanning more than five decades, Masekela gained international recognition with his distinctive Afro-Jazz sound and hits such as “Soweto Blues”, which served as one of the soundtracks to the antiapartheid movement.
Following the end of white-minority rule, he opened the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup Kick-Off Concert and performed at the event’s opening ceremony in Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium.
“Hugh’s global and activist contribution to and participation in the areas of music, theatre, and the arts in general is contained in the minds and memory of millions,” a statement on behalf of the Masekela family said.
“Rest in power beloved, you are forever in our hearts.”
His son, Sal, recalled memories of being dragged around the jazz clubs of Manhattan by his father aged just five.
“He would steal the hearts and souls of innocents with a musical storytelling all his own,” Sal posted on his Facebook page.
“It was these moments and his choosing to take me around the globe any chance he got, that would come to shape my entire world view.”
Masekela’s song “Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela)”, written while he was in living in exile, called for the release of the-then imprisoned Mandela and was banned by the apartheid regime.
South African President Jacob Zuma said the nation would mourn a man who “kept the torch of freedom alive”.
“It is an immeasurable loss to the music industry and to the country at large. His contribution to the struggle for liberation will never be forgotten,” Zuma said in a statement.
Arts and Culture minister Nathi Mthethwa tweeted: “A baobab tree has fallen, the nation has lost a one of a kind.”
After honing his craft as a teenager, Masekela left South Africa aged 21 to begin three decades in exile.
His global appeal hit new heights in 1968 when his instrumental single “Grazin’ in the Grass” went to number one in the U.S. charts. NEW YORK, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) Forget jargon-filled monologues, raids to rescue enslaved Indian children inject drama into a documentary about Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, who hopes the film will inspire viewers to play a part in the global fight to eradicate modern slavery.
“Kailash”, which premiered last week at the U.S.based Sundance Film Festival, charts Satyarthi’s rise from domestic anti-trafficking figurehead to Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Satyarthi, 64, whose charity Bachpan Bachao Andolan has been credited with freeing at least 80,000 child slaves in India over 30 years, said the film might shock audiences and spur them to take action such as refusing to buy goods made with slave labor.
“Many people have never thought that slavery still exists in its cruelest form,” Satyarthi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Sundance, the independent film industry’s premiere U.S. gathering - now in its 33rd year.
“I always feel that consciousness-raising is the first step to societal change,” added Satyarthi, joint winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai.
In an early scene of the documentary, one of many filmed with handheld cameras, activists working under Satyarthi’s lead storm into a New Delhi apartment housing several child laborers.
After one campaigner breaks down a padlocked door, his frantic colleague eventually unearths stunned-looking children from under piles of plastic bags where they had been hidden.
Filmmaker Derek Doneen spent two years shooting scenes with Satyarthi’s team, which the American director said had enabled him to avoid making a film dominated by data and talking heads.
“I didn’t want to make the sad child-slavery movie that you see and maybe it affects you but you don’t want to ... talk about it because it’s too heavy,” said the “Kailash” director.
Countless children across India are trafficked and enslaved every year - either forced to work or sold into sexual slavery.