| Brenda Fassie, the legendary South
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| | Tutu and other famous black South
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| African pop singer who sold millions of
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| | Africans.
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| records across Africa and around the
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| | Five years before Fassie arrived, Soweto
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| world, died in a Johannesburg hospital on
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| | police opened fire on 10,000 protesting
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| May 9, 2004 after spending 13 days in a
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| | students marching peacefully from Naledi
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| coma. The post-mortem said her final dose
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| | High School to Orlando Stadium. In the
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| of cocaine was the cause of death. She
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| | events that unfolded, 566 people died.
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| was only 39 years old. MaBrrr, as she was
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| | The impact of the Soweto Uprising, as it
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| affectionately nicknamed by her fans, had
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| | became known, reverberated throughout the
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| tried to resolve her severe addictions
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| | country and around the world. Soweto
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| over the years at various treatment
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| | became the stage for violent state
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| centers - in fact, more than 30 times -
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| | repression and the roaring social and
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| but, unfortunately for MaBrrr and her
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| | political oven in which Fassie forged the
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| millions of admirers, she never found a
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| | direction of her music - by the mid-'90s,
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| truly successful drug rehab program.
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| | she was the unequivocal voice of black
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| Fassie, the youngest of nine kids, was
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| | oppression. But she had also formed a
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| named after Brenda Lee, the American
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| | drug addiction so strong that it managed
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| singer. Her pianist mother let her earn
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| | to resist one treatment program after
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| money by singing for tourists in the
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| | another. Without access to a real drug
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| streets. In 1981 at 16, Fassie left Cape
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| | rehab, Fassie was unable to break the
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| Town to seek her fortune as a singer in
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| | habit.
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| Johannesburg's Soweto district. Soweto,
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| | In 2001 Time magazine dubbed Fassie "The
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| short for "South West Townships", had
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| | Madonna of the Townships" and indeed she
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| long been under the grinding heel of
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| | was. Fassie managed to combine
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| South Africa's white supremacist
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| | ground-breaking musical success with a
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| apartheid policy. Poverty, drugs,
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| | personal accessibility and human
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| alcohol, prostitution, illness and crime
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| | fallibility that drew a fierce loyalty
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| were rampant, and drug rehab facilities
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| | and protectiveness from fans. Her career
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| as we know them today were virtually
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| | was studded with record sales and awards,
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| unknown. But there was art, there was
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| | but punctuated also by periodic scandals,
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| music, there were night clubs to sing in
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| | recurring battles with drug addiction,
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| and a vibrant culture was being created
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| | and lows in her musical career that saw
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| by Soweto's people. Nelson Mandela lived
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| | her written off by the press.
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| there for years, as did Bishop Desmond
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|
