TOMORROW will be the 16th anniversary of the legendary Brenda Fassie’s death.
The woman they called The Queen of African Pop, The Madonna of the Townships or MaBrrr, was known for her hit singles like Vuli Ndlela, Weekend Special, Nomakanjani, Too Late For Mama and many others.
She left many hearts broken when she passed away in 2004 from a drug overdose.
To commemorate MaBrrr, the SunTeam spoke to journalist and author Bongani Madondo who wrote her biography titled I’m Not Your Weekend Special: Portraits on the Life, Style & Politics of Brenda Fassie.
The book was released in 2014, 10 years after her death.
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Bongani said he became friends with Brenda in 1997 after he had written about her for City Press.
“She was like a big sister to me. We were friends until she passed away.
“I wrote her book because I realised how black artists were under-recorded and people only knew her from the gossip that was written about her. I had to intervene because I knew there was so much more to her.”
He said he was planning on expanding the book.
“I have been approached by a national theatre, as well as several film producers including the director of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun and others locally and overseas.”
He said he hasn’t signed with anyone yet.
One of MaBrrr’s former backing vocalists and lovers, Ludwe Maki said Brenda wanted to move to the United States to pursue her career.
“I worked with her as her backing vocalist for many years and I dated her for seven years. She said she wanted to relocate to the US for professional reasons but I don’t think that would have happened because she loved Mzansi too much,” he said.
“I think she would have continued with her music school because she loved kids. She’d always said if she wasn’t a musician, she would’ve been a teacher in a creche.”
