Bhekumuzi Luthuli

Long before world music became a marketing category, Bhekumuzi Luthuli was already proving that a home-made guitar and a Zulu voice could carry a nation's stories. Born in 1961 in Kwa-Maphumulo, near the KwaZulu-Natal town of Stanger, Luthuli grew up teaching himself traditional Zulu music, reportedly strumming a tin guitar while herding his father's cattle. It was an unglamorous beginning for a man who would go on to become one of maskandi's defining voices.

His professional life began in the early 1980s, when he joined the Durban-based mbaqanga outfit Oshimi. Two albums in, he struck out on his own, and it was this solo path that made his name. His second and third releases, Unembeza and Wongikhonzela Enhliziyweni, each won OKTV awards, establishing him as a serious contender in a genre still finding its commercial footing. Later, Impempe went platinum, selling more than 50,000 copies, a rare feat for maskandi at the time.

By the time of his death, Luthuli had released more than 23 albums and sold over a million records, numbers that speak to just how deeply his sound resonated with ordinary South Africans. His final studio effort, Imali Yabe Lungu, arrived in February 2010 and went gold within a week; its title track later won Best Song at the 2011 SATMAs. He was also nominated posthumously for Male Artist of the Year and Best Traditional Music Album at the 2012 SAMAs, for the album Isipho.

Luthuli died on 7 April 2010 at Durban's McCord Hospital, aged 48, after several weeks battling the effects of a stroke. Maskandi lost one of its old-school torchbearers that day, but the catalogue he left behind remains a living archive of Zulu guitar music at its most honest.