(By Solomon Mahoi, [Pseudonym, Abck Obba])
August 27, 2024
From his early teenage years in South Africa to when he was exiled from South Africa at age 20, Hugh Masekela was known to be of exceptional ethical and moral character, clothing him with admiration by his fellow youths as well as elders who identifies within themselves the human decencies which ethical and moral values places in the human being causing the human being to live not only in dignity with the self, but also with other fellow human beings one crosses paths with.
While in exile in the United States of America, Masekela's ethical and moral character marinated deep within him thereby increasing his confidence and made him a visionary, causing him to guide youths along the lines of the idea of a dignified pursuance on justice, decolonization, and the preservation of the African culture.
Vivaciously advocating these social sentiments at a time when black South Africans were being oppressed under the Apartheid regime, Hugh Masekela remained grounded in his African roots as his Afrocentrism inspired his musical compositions of his compositions to remain in the hints of traditional African melodies but accompanied by lyrics that resonated his experiences of the despicable memories that was the Apartheid era, especially during the 1950s to 1960s.
As an eminent trumpeter and also one of the leading icons (to date) within the jazz musical genre, Hugh Masekela was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in music in 2015 by Rhodes University, in recognition of his legend-infused influence on world music along with his leadership skills as well as his human rights contributions to society at large.
There is so much to say about this down-to-earth but principled-centered exemplary person of a human being that was Hugh Masekela. But for a short article as this one, I'm however delighted to add that as a child, Hugh Masekela had begun playing the piano followed by him mastering the trumpet at age 14, causing him to be an integral playing member of South Africa's first youth orchestra known as the Huddleston Jazz Band.
He lived from 1939 to 2018, but the latter part of his years saw him battling prostate cancer, to which he eventually succumbed. But before his passing, the advocator that remained in him unto his latter days, had him encouraged all men to have regular prostate checkup to have their awareness of their health status to not deviate from their daily consciousness, in fact to the point of urging them to ask questions including demanding answers from their care practitioners, while at the same time they learn everything there is to know about the disease, in addition to telling others to do the same.
Nevertheless, and along in conjunction to the "all good things must come to an end" adage, Hugh Masekela's soul may have departed this life but one thing his fans, his loved ones, South Africa and the Africa continent bears of him till today, is the fact that his music communicated what the true African wealth is, which is the African culture, within which is found African traditionalism, as within this African traditionalism is found Africans' sense of identity, Africans' sense of justice, and Africans' sense of a universal commonplace that is kindness.
To this end, may Huge Masekela's soul continue to rest in perpetual peace.
~ PS: For additional details on Hugh Masekela, kindly follow this link: https://www.ru.ac.za/latestnews/archives/2018/drhughmasekelatheendofaremarkablelife.html
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