Dr Mbongeni Ngema, legendary playwright who decried the injustices of apartheid while celebrating black culture and resilience in works including the Broadway hit “Sarafina!” that later became a film starring Whoopi Goldberg, died on December 27 following a car accident. He was 68.
Ngema was in a car that was involved in a head-on collision in the Eastern Cape, according to a family statement. Ngema later died at a hospital in Mbizana.
The struggles of the apartheid era – endemic poverty, repression and political marginalisation – were the core of Ngema’s stage productions, which reached audiences across the world and made Ngema among the leading artistic voices challenging white-minority rule during the apartheid era.
His Tony-nominated musical “Sarafina!” (1987) was inspired
