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