South African cultural icon Latozi Mpahleni, better known as Madosini and popular Big Nuz member Mampintsha have both died.
Mampintsha was 40 before he died, and Madosini was 78 before her sad passing.
Mampintsha, who was wedded to the singer Babes Wodumo, passed away in a Durban hospital from a stroke. Manager of West Ink Records Sbu Ncube confirmed his death to local media.
Record company Afrotainment had issued a statement on Wednesday, confirming rumors that hitmaker Mampintsha had been hospitalized to Durban’s Edward Hospital, before Mampintsha’s passing.
Following the artist’s passing, local musicians and other members of the music business expressed their condolences on social media.
Madosini who would have been 79 on Christmas Day, passed away on Friday 23 December at St Mary’s Hospital in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, after battling various ailments, her family said.
“Having survived a heart attack while she was on a tour in France in 2019, as well as two COVID-19 attacks, her health status could not be back to its normalcy, as a result from time to time she was admitted to hospital,” a statement reads. “She was admitted to St Mary’s Hospital on 3 December 2022 where she subsequently succumbed to death at 4.15pm on 23 December 2022.”
Madosini was praised throughout Africa and throughout the world for her proficiency with the uhadi (music bow), umrhumbe (mouth bow), and isitolotolo (jaw harp) instruments. She has been dubbed a guardian of traditional Xhosa music. She vanished into the then-Transkei region in the middle of the 1970s after releasing a few excellent but obscure albums. Dizu Plaatjies and Mzwandile Qotoyi, the founding members of Amampondo, paid her a visit in 1995 and invited her to collaborate with them on an indigenous album featuring members of Amampondo and Cuban master Congalero Changuito.
Her solo album Power to the Women, released in 1998, placed her among the world music stars of the day. In 2008, she was the first person to be recorded and documented for WOMAD festival’s Musical Elders Archives project, and in early September 2022, Madosini received an honorary doctorate degree from Rhodes University for her “sustained and exceptional contribution in the Xhosa culture, through the preservation and popularising of the isiXhosa musical bows uhadi and umrhubhe.”
“My mother was a loving person and enjoyed sharing her knowledge of indigenous music with everyone,” her daughter, Phumza Mpahleni, was quoted as saying by Sowetan Live. “But she was worried that if she dies, indigenous music will die in this country. That is why she wanted everyone to come and get that knowledge from her.”
Madosini’s family announced that the musician would be laid to rest in her homestead in the Mkhankatho Administrative Area of Libode, about 42 kilometers from Mthatha, and that the funeral would probably take place on January 7.
Following the legend’s passing, tributes have poured in, including those from Concerts SA, the Southern African Music Rights Organisation, and the South African Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture.