Jonas Gwangwa: The musician who embodied South Africa’s struggle for a national culture
The trombonist, composer and cultural activist never wished to be ‘the state composer’ but remained political until the end.
Jonas Gwangwa at the Cape Town Jazz Festival in April 2017.
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Jonas Gwangwa/Twitter
Music is not a zero-sum game with only one “best”. But if you seek to name one musician whose life embodies the South African people’s struggle for a national culture, it must be trombonist, composer and cultural activist Jonas Mosa Gwangwa, who was born on October 19, 1937, in Orlando East, Johannesburg, and died on January 23 in Johannesburg aged 83.