The Sunday News
Mbongeni Msimanga Sunday Leisure Correspondent
OLD age is not a disease, it is strength and survivorship, triumph over all kinds of vicissitudes and disappointments, trials and illnesses, wrote Maggie Kuhn.The statement is apt in describing the gift of long life that some people have but while some usually grow frail with old age, others seem to gain more strength.
One of the few people, who have refused to be outdone by old age and a wizened body, is 80-year-old veteran jazz songbird Dorothy Masuku whose energetic performances on stage remains the envy of the young most of whom cannot match her while the dynamic, unsympathetic and ever-changing music industry seems to have failed to phase her out.
All what it means, therefore, is that her music has remained quite relevant.
“There is no secret to my success. I was born to be what I am and I simply reflect on it. I am simply an African girl and on stage I simply perfect my originality,” said the legendary vocalist and songstress Dorothy “Aunty Dot” Masuku.
A jazz icon to reckon with, Aunty Dot, as she is popularly known in the showbiz circles, has dedicated most of her life to marabi jazz music and has no doubt grown to become one of Africa’s well known and revered musicians.
At the age of 80, her continued performance on stage fulfils her “God-given” mandate to entertain and educate people through music, probably in line Duke Orsino who proclaimed in Shakespeare’s book 12th Night that, “If music be the food of love, play on, give me excess of it; that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die”.
She is in love with her music, and the girl, as she refers to herself, has kept going for long in the showbiz industry.
Unlike many artistes who are phased out of their career path by age and failure to keep up with the musical trends, Aunty Dot believes without music, her life would be meaningless.
“You can’t stop me from singing because that’s my life, that’s what makes me tick. Without singing I will die. It’s like locking me into something where there is no air coming through. I didn’t set out to become a musical star; music drew me, music called me. I don’t know how to explain it, but it is in my blood,” she said.
Masuku, who has roots in Zimbabwe was born in Southern Rhodesia in September 1935, and rose to fame in the early 1950s after abandoning her education at a Catholic boarding school in Johannesburg to join Philemon Magotsi’s Ink Spots in Durban at the age of 15.
This is when she came face to face with her fate in the entertainment industry after she penned one gem after the other and since then she has never looked back.
One of her first songs Hamba Nontsokolo was written while on a train from Zimbabwe to Johannesburg, when her family was moving to South Africa.
“I was a passenger travelling in third- or fourth-class coach if I remember very well. The song is about someone who is struggling, Nontsokolo means someone who suffers. It was about my own struggle,” she said.
And perhaps guided by the axiom that a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle she has not been so stingy with her wealth of experience. She has passed on the baton to youths aiming to emulate her colourful career and it has yielded results for many while spurring her career to dizzy heights.
Most of her songs are laced with culture appreciation lyrics and she said reflecting on one’s culture was of significance.
Aunty Dot said it was necessary for youths to compose songs that spoke volumes of their culture and indigenous African tradition.
“Young people must keep on singing indigenous African music because that’s what the world is looking for. And they must keep on composing beautiful new tunes. I am glad I have crafted a legacy for the young generation that will live and be remembered even when I pass on. This goes to show that I am not a dying person. Yes, my body is going to perish but I will still be around. It makes me happy knowing that I will leave my shadow behind. I know my music will remain etched in the minds of my fans and it gives me pleasure,” she said.
Her career was almost cut short after her songs became increasingly political and directly spoke of the segregation and colonial bondage of the apartheid government, something that forced her into exile for more than 30 years.
She said one of her songs, Dr Malan, drew the ire of the apartheid government, something that led to her band being put under investigation and confiscation of all her distributable copies of the song.
This, however, did nothing to deter her from singing politically oriented songs, as she continued belting out the freedom tunes from Zimbabwe and Zambia as evidenced by the song she wrote and sang for Patrice Lumumba.
“I remember that one of my songs Dr Malan was banned in South Africa and I almost said to myself that my career had ended. Worse still I was given a 30-year exile from my country and I had to return to Zimbabwe and then Zambia as well, where I continued to sing politically oriented songs,” she said.
Probably her ability to keep in touch with her roots has kept her going in the music industry and has also seen her contribute to Zimbabwe’s music industry as evidenced by the songs Nhingirikiri, Gona RaMachingura and Mzilikazi.
Many know her as Dorothy Masuka, but she emphasised that her real surname was Masuku and the misspelling of her surname originated with a record label during her earliest recordings.
“The misspelling of my surname originated from one of my earliest recordings and since then that is the surname that I have been using musically. Originally I was born Dorothy Masuku in the then Southern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe,” she said.
Her illustrious music career has spanned more than five decades and she has worked on collaborations with renowned artistes such as Hugh Masekela, the late Miriam Makeba, Mahotella Queens, Dolly Rathebe, Judith Sephuma, and Kunle Ayo. These collaborations, she said, had seen her shape her career immensely.
