Google Doodle has honoured late South Africa Jazz legend Hugh Masekela on what would’ve been his 80th birthday.
Masekela was born in the eastern city of Witbank on April 4, 1939, and took up the trumpet when he was 14. He and his band, Jazz Epistles, became the first all-black jazz band to record an album in South African history.
They were forced to leave the country as the apartheid government tightened its grip in 1960 and Masekela didn’t return for 30 years. During this period, he traveled to the UK and US, where he studied classical trumpet at the Manhattan School of Music from 1960 to 1964.
He collaborated with Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Paul Simon (whom he toured with in the ’80s) and Stevie Wonder. But he never forgot his roots as he wrote anti-apartheid tunes such as Soweto Blues and Bring Him Back Home — spreading awareness of the 1976 Soweto uprising and demanding the release of jailed icon Nelson Mandela.
Masekela returned to his home country in 1990, in time to see Mandela released, the end of apartheid and the election of Mandela as the country’s first black head of state.
The musician lost his 10-year battle with prostate cancer on Jan. 23, 2018, aged 78.
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google’s homepages that commemorates holidays, events, achievements, and people. Initially, Google Doodles were neither animated nor hyperlinked—they were simply images with hovertext describing the subject or expressing a holiday greeting.
He collaborated with Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Marvin Gaye, Paul Simon (whom he toured with in the ’80s) and Stevie Wonder. But he never forgot his roots as he wrote anti-apartheid tunes such as Soweto Blues and Bring Him Back Home — spreading awareness of the 1976 Soweto uprising and demanding the release of jailed icon Nelson Mandela.
Masekela returned to his home country in 1990, in time to see Mandela released, the end of apartheid and the election of Mandela as the country’s first black head of state.
The musician lost his 10-year battle with prostate cancer on Jan. 23, 2018, aged 78.
A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google’s homepages that commemorates holidays, events, achievements, and people. Initially, Google Doodles were neither animated nor hyperlinked—they were simply images with hovertext describing the subject or expressing a holiday greeting.
