HUGH MASIKELA WAS NEITHER “A FREEDOM FIGHTER NOR POLITICAL ACTIVIST”
![Bra Hugh Masekela [Image: Wits Uni / Daily Maverick]](https://gsmn.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/WitsUni-Hugh-citation-1024x595.jpg)
It is unfair for anyone to think or expect that Tribute to Hugh Masekela was about the celebration of a political icon. Yes, Bra Hugh, as the legendary musician was affectionately called, was …er a highly conscientized politically conscious artist. But he was neither a freedom fighter nor a political activist. More than anything, when […]
SKETCHES OF BECOMING: CONVERSATIONS ON MILES
![MILES DAVIS [Image: The Audiophile Man]](https://gsmn.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/miles1967-1024x576.jpg)
There are friendships forged in proximity, and others tempered in absence. Stretched across borders, tested by history, and sustained by memory. The musical reflections that follow emerge from the latter: a lifelong dialogue between us. Our paths diverged early under the pressures of exile, yet remained tethered by a shared sensibility, a common ear, and […]
THE SORCERER: MILES DAVIS AT 100
The other day, I woke up with a serious affliction. I was hustled and mugged by a tune. I could not banish it from my interiority. It had me in its clutches. The song was Jo-Jo from Miles Davis album Amandla, released in 1989, on the cusp of our democratic breakthrough. The album was an […]
THE SOLITUDE OF SILENCE: LIFE THROUGH A HORN AND LESSONS FROM MILES DAVIS
Every person eventually discovers an instrument through which existence becomes intelligible. For some it is a pen, for others a camera, a classroom, a stethoscope, a courtroom, or the quiet patience of a workshop bench. The instrument becomes more than a tool; it becomes a lens through which the world is interpreted. Over time it […]
KIPPIE MOEKETSI AT 100: THE SPIRIT OF SOUTH AFRICAN JAZZ LIVES ON
On the 27th of July 2025, South Africa commemorates the centenary of one of its most compelling cultural figures. Kippie Moeketsi. Affectionately known as “South Africa’s Charlie Parker.” Yet Kippie was far more than a local imitation of an American great. He was a revolution in tone, mood, and being. He was the soul of […]
OPEN MIC, OPEN MIND: A MASTERCLASS WITH LEFIFI TLADI
There are evenings that unfold as planned. Carefully curated events with clear start times, smooth transitions, and a sense of control that leaves everyone reassured. And then there are evenings that refuse containment. Where the very act of gathering becomes part ritual, part rebellion, and part revelation. The recent evening at MOMO Gallery, in honour […]
THE PRESERVATION OF WHITE PRIVILEGE IS ANTITHESIS TO THE NATION’S DREAM TO BE FREE
This year marks the 49th anniversary of June 16, 1976. It is almost half a century of memory with which we are dealing. Through the dialogue held in Soweto this week, we engaged in a struggle against forgetting. In South Africa, June 16, 1976 was the bravest action undertaken, only 16 years after the Sharpeville Massacre […]
SA CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY OF MOLEFE PHETO, THE MUCH LOVED AZANIAN “BULL FROM MORULENG”
Today, June 11, marks the celebration of a true giant of the anti-apartheid Struggle, Molefe Pheto, as he turns 90. The highly esteemed, affable nonagenarian is a renowned South African musician, teacher, and activist. Born on June 11, 1935, in Alexandra Township, Johannesburg, Pheto has had a remarkable life dedicated to waging an anti-racist struggle […]
THE USNESS OF US: A TRIBUTE TO SOUTH AFRICA’S FOREMOST STRUGGLE POETS
There are verses that do more than speak. They breathe. They march. They bleed. They return across generations like incantations passed from mouth to ear, from prison cell to refugee camp, from jazz club to the guerrilla front. For those of us who came of age in exile, navigating the uncertainties of borders, belonging, and […]