CHARMAIN NAIDOO: The loss of Hugh Masekela hurts in this moment of hope
'Hugh Masekela took South African music to the world. What an astonishing ambassador he was'
In May 1985, I lost the first significant person in my young life. I was 27 years old, and apart from ancient family members and a dear uncle who died too young – shockingly murdered in northern Natal where I grew up – nobody I knew intimately had, until then, died. Savvas Georgiades, slipped off the top of Augrabies Falls near Upington in the northern Cape and was presumed dead. His body was never found, and although a death certificate was finally issued, there has never – to this day – been any certainty that he is in fact dead. That was the hardest part of it: the not knowing. We, his family, his friends, all those who loved him, were never sure. For years I expected him to turn up, looking a little sheepish, with tales of having gone walkabout. In this loop of a fantasy, his dark hair was shaggy long, his olive skin dark from the sun; his tales of adventure exotic and exciting. There was never any conclusion to my imaginings, like why he’d disappeared without a word to those of...
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