Brenda Fassie, the South African singer, has died at the age of 39. At some point in the 90s I heard of her and bought a CD. She had a great voice, and a difficult life.

Most people reading this have probably never have heard of her. For several reasons I tend to pay attention to South Africa and its culture. One reason: James lived there eight months in the 70s. Another: we know people from South Africa, such as Gary and Lisa who run Axis Gallery. I think I have always found it an amazing, inspiring story -- the end of apartheid without total civil war. I realize it's still far from perfect, but it is a more hopeful story than one of bombing people into "liberation."

I remember the 1990 parade for Nelson Mandela in lower Manhattan. At that time I was working on the 100th floor of 2 WTC for Lehman Brothers. Only one person in the whole office left to join me to watch the parade.

Here is an MP3 (5.6MB) of Brenda Fassie's Sgaxa Mabhanthi (Maestro Mix). Amazon has some of her CDs.