Jonas Mosa Gwangwa (19 October 1937 – 23 January 2021) was a South African
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
musician, songwriter and producer. He was an important figure in
South African jazz for over 40 years.
Life and career
Gwangwa was born in
Orlando East,
Soweto
Soweto () is a Township (South Africa), township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western T ...
on 19 October 1937.
He first gained prominence playing trombone with
The Jazz Epistles.
After the short-lived group broke up, he continued to be important to the South African music scene and then later abroad.
In the 1960s, he began to gain recognition in the United States, and in 1965 he was featured in a "Sound Of Africa" concert at
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
. The others at the concert included South African musicians
Miriam Makeba
Zenzile Miriam Makeba ( , ; 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 African popular music, Afropop, ja ...
,
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and f ...
, and
Letta Mbulu. Despite his international fame, he was not seen favourably by the
apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...
government, and went into exile in the 1970s.
Initially exiled to the United States, Gwangwa spent the late 1970s and a better part of the 1980s living in
Gaborone
Gaborone ( , , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Botswana, largest city of Botswana, with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its metropolitan area is home to 534, ...
,
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...
, where he founded the band Shakawe that included South African musicians Steve Dyer, Dennis Mpale,
Tony Cedras and local Botswana musicians Rampholo Molefhe, Whyte Kgopo, Bonjo Keipedile, Tsholofelo Giddie and Japie Phiri. During his time in Gaborone, Gwangwa got involved in the
MEDU Art Ensemble, a collection of anti-apartheid musicians, visual artists, and writers, working alongside other Botswana-based South African exiles such as
Keorapetse Kgositsile,
Baleka Mbeta, Tim Williams,
Thami Mnyele and
Mongane Wally Serote
Mongane Wally Serote (born 8 May 1944) is a South African poet and writer. He became involved in political resistance to the apartheid government by joining the African National Congress (ANC) and in 1969 was arrested and detained for several ...
. During the 14 June 1985 apartheid
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force (SADF) (Afrikaans: ''Suid-Afrikaanse Weermag'') comprised the armed forces of South Africa from 1957 until 1994. Shortly before the state reconstituted itself as a republic in 1961, the former Union Defence Fo ...
cross-border
Raid on Gaborone, which killed MEDU members Mnyele, Mike Hamlyn and ten others, as well as bombing a house recently vacated by MEDU leader Williams, Gwangwa believed he and other artistic exiles were being targeted by the apartheid government and returned to overseas exile.
From 1980 to 1990, at the request of
ANC leader in exile,
Oliver Tambo
Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo (27 October 191724 April 1993) was a South African anti-apartheid politician and activist who served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991.
Biography Childhood
Oliver Tambo was ...
, Gwangwa was the leader of Amandla, the cultural ensemble of the
African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...
.
Gwangwa assembled Amandla participants from exiled South Africans in
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...
and toured more than 40 countries with 'Amandla the musical,' a story of South Africa's struggle against apartheid told in artistic musical form.
In later life, he became important as a composer doing the scores of films like ''
Cry Freedom
''Cry Freedom'' is a 1987 epic biographical drama film directed and produced by Richard Attenborough, set in late-1970s apartheid-era South Africa. The screenplay was written by John Briley based on a pair of books by journalist Donald Woods. ...
'' (1987) and, at the 60th Annual
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
in 1988, he performed his nominated song ''Cry Freedom.'' Also, in 1988, he performed at the
Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute
The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute was a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London, and broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million. Marking the forthcoming 70th birthday (18 July 1988) of the ...
in
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...
. In 1991, he returned to South Africa and in 1997 composed the theme for the country's Olympic bid.
Gwangwa is paid tribute as the subject of the composition "Portrait of Mosa Gwangwa" by
Johnny Dyani
Johnny Mbizo Dyani (30 November 1945 – 24 October 1986) was a South African jazz double bassist, vocalist and pianist, who, in addition to being a key member of The Blue Notes, played with such international musicians as Don Cherry, Steve L ...
, which appeared on Dyani's album ''
Angolian Cry''.
Gwangwa died due to cardiac complications on 23 January 2021, at the age of 83.
Honours
* :
Order of Ikhamanga, Gold (27 April 2010)
References
Bibliography
*
Jürgen Schadeberg, Don Albert, ''Jazz, Blues and Swing: Six Decades of Music in South Africa'', 2007,
External links
Allmusic*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwangwa, Jonas
1937 births
2021 deaths
20th-century South African composers
20th-century South African male musicians
20th-century South African musicians
20th-century trombonists
21st-century composers
21st-century South African male musicians
21st-century South African musicians
21st-century trombonists
Jazz trombonists
South African male film score composers
South African male jazz musicians
Musicians from Soweto
Recipients of the Order of Ikhamanga
South African film score composers
South African jazz musicians
The Jazz Epistles members