Renowned legendary South African jazz musician and anti-apartheid activist, Hugh Masekela has passed on.
“After a protracted and courageous battle with prostate cancer, he passed peacefully in Johannesburg, South Africa,” his family said in a statement.
The unfortunate incident triggered a deluge of tributes to his music, his long career and his fight against white majority rule in his home nation.
In the words of South African President Jacob Zuma: “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.”
Masekela, often called “Bra Hugh” gained international recognition with his distinctive Afro-Jazz sound and hits such as “Soweto Blues”, which served as one of the sound-tracks to the anti-apartheid movement.
Masekela started playing the trumpet at age 14 and gained fame for his lively, energetic style of playing. He went into exile after the 1960 Sharpeville killings in which 69 protesters were shot dead.
In 1968 he scored an international hit with “Grazing in the Grass.”
Many of his compositions were about the struggle for majority rule in South Africa and full democratic rights. Masekela’s composition “Bring Him Back Home” calling for Nelson Mandela to be released from prison became an international anthem for the anti-apartheid movement.He opened the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup Kick-Off Concert.