Dolly Rathebe
Dolly Rathebe (born April 2, 1928 as Josephine Malatsi in Randfontein near Johannesburg , † September 16, 2004 in GaRankuwa near Pretoria ) was a South African jazz and blues singer and actress .
Life
Dolly Rathebe grew up in the 1963 demolished district of Sophiatown in western Johannesburg, which was an important center of black African culture in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1949 she was best known for the film Jim Comes to Jo'burg , in which she played a nightclub singer.
In the early 1950s she was arrested together with Jürgen Schadeberg , the head of the photo editor of the first black lifestyle magazine in South Africa, Drum , when he wanted to take a cover photo of her for Drum . They were suspected of violating the Immorality Act , which prohibited sexual relations between blacks and whites. In the 1950s, Dolly Rathebe was considered the best jazz singer in South Africa.
In 1964 she became internationally known with the afro jazz group Elite Swingsters . Then she retired and ran a shebeen - a kind of unlicensed living room pub with live music - in Cape Town . Even after moving to the Mabopane township near Pretoria in 1980 , she continued her shebeen activities. In 1988 she played a supporting role in the film Mapantsula.
After the Elite Swingsters reunited in 1989, they continued their former fame with them in the early 1990s and released the album Woza (1991). The best known fan of Dolly Rathebe was Nelson Mandela , for whom she sang live several times.
Honors
In 2001 Rathebe received the Lifetime Achievement Award for her life's work at the South African Music Awards .
Posthumously at the end of 2004 the government of South Africa awarded her the Ikhamanga Order in Silver.
Web links
- Dolly Rathebe in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Biography as part of the award of the South African National Order ( Memento from June 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- Obituary scotsman.com (English)
- Book excerpt about the Rathebe family at ZA @ Play ( Memento from October 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Schadeberg , Klaus Humann (Ed.): DRUM - The fifties - Images from South Africa . Rogner & Bernhard at Zweiausendeins, Hamburg 1991, ISBN 3-8077-0248-2 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rathebe, Dolly |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Malatsi, Josephine (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | South African jazz and blues singer and actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 2, 1928 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Randfontein near Johannesburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 16, 2004 |
| Place of death | GaRankuwa near Pretoria |