| Life without waiting for Brenda |
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Even in dying Brenda Fassie had the whole world waiting. There was, as always, controversy. Was she alive or was she dead? Was she brain-dead? Was it asthma, was it a heart attack, was it drugs? Should they pull the plug on life-support? Some papers announced her death before she had actually died. Reports were made and subsequently refuted. Everybody was talking Brenda, everybody became a commentator. Whether they liked her or not, she was on everybody's lips. The most prominent leaders of the country gathered at her bedside. Religious icons prayed. Fans of Brenda's around the world responded with an outpouring of collective sadness. In her life she had commanded the highest level of attention in the media and among the people. In her death, that command was at its zenith. Many expected her to jump out of hospital bed with a loud "I'm Back!" But she's late now. "As a man, I thought I was bold and strong, but when I heard the news this morning I felt my eyes swell with tears. I will miss you Brenda" read a message from Harare on the BBC's website. On a site in the Czech republic appeared "I never forget the songs from Brenda, Europe loves Brenda and Africa." A Gambian fan wrote, "We send our deepest condolences on behalf of the Gambian people." From America: "The vibrance and energy of her music sent shivers down my spine… I'm shocked to hear she's gone." Even that bastion of indifference, the fabulously asinine David Bullard showed a degree of affection for her in his Sunday Times column when he sardonically called her Glenda Flossie. Business Day called her a cultural icon that shaped the spirit of her generation. The Sunday Times went for the sensation of poison riddled cocaine, following it up at the end of May with the headline Sales of Brenda's music soar, revealing sales jumps of 700 per cent on Brenda titles in some chains. In his coffeebeans.co.za column The Devil Writes Back Again, Akin Omotoso wrote "DJ Khabzela of YFM, Tebogo Madingoane, of the group Mafikizolo, Gito Baloi and now Brenda. It isn't the year of the black celebrity." This Day newspaper suggested that she had died of a broken heart. And the people of South Africa mourned, in their love for her and in their distaste. It didn't matter whether or not you were a fan of Brenda. Like Bob Dylan, Gilberto Gil, Ravi Shankar, Brenda embodied her country. South Africa was Brenda, Brenda was South Africa. More than that, Brenda embodied the continent. She was the embodiment of its contradictions and its triumphs. Its brutal madness and its beautiful joy. Its impulsiveness and yet its agonising sense of history. In Liberia performing for the 4th wedding anniversary of former president Charles Taylor, Brenda praised him for his humaneness. She seemed unaware that he was in fact a severe threat to humanity. Yet she honoured Boipatong victims in a song and donated profits from the song to the victims. She can attack a photographer one day and win a Kora the next. In Brenda there was always this push and pull, a childlike impulsiveness with an angelic sense of the potential virtue of humanity. I was one of those that was always waiting for Brenda. To arrive at shows, to arrive at interviews. She never did arrive. And I never got to see her live or meet her. Yet it only served to enhance the delicious whimfulness of her character. I know her brother, Themba. I met him at the Yellow Door in Gugs. Winston Mankunku's Super 12 was playing, it was an extraordinary gig of healing and unity and magic. Themba was doing a Sophiatown impala shuffle and borrowed my hat to introduce himself with the pride of a doting sibling: I`m Brenda Fassie's brother! I encountered him many times since. We never spoke about Brenda. But we didn't have to. Words could never have captured the immense love and respect for her that Themba exuded. My mother said, what's all the fuss? She was a drug addict, she was out of control, why was she so popular? I told her about playing Weekend Special at the Curve and how people would whoop and shriek with pleasure. I told her of nightclubs I had been to in Abidjan, Brazza and Ouaga that turned into a carnival when Vulindlela was played. I told her of the power of Brenda to unite people in a common celebration of humanity wherever they heard her music. I read to her messages of tribute, like this one from Tanzania: Brenda, you will ever be remembered for your humanity, Africanism, Patriotism and love to the whole of Africa." The drugs, the booze, the sex, the extreme highs and lows of her life - they made that celebration and joy all the more tangible, for they were triumphs over adversity. "We all know the problems Brenda had. We wanted her to live to 80 years old," President Mbeki said at her funeral. It might well have been a broken heart that killed her prematurely. And we hope, as one of the tributes from Kenya read, "that you have finally found peace." By Iain Harris |
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