The father of South African Jazz Hugh Masekela dies

The jazz veteran Hugh Masekela

Updated: 24 Jan 2020

On 23 January 2018, Hugh Masekela passed away peacefully at his home in Johannesburg, South Africa surrounded by his family. He died after a battle with prostate cancer. In March 2016, he underwent eye surgery when the doctors found out his cancer had spread. The same year in September he had to have surgery again after another tumour was discovered.

Masekela was born in KwaGuqa Township in Witbank, Mpumalanga Province. He started to sing and play the piano at a young age. At the age of 14 after seeing a film of a ‘young man with a horn’, he began to play the trumpet. His first trumpet was from Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, an anti-apartheid Christian priest at St Peter's Secondary School. He then mastered the trumpet and joined Alfred Herbert’s African Jazz Revue.

How we know this

01Thakurdin, K., & Zeeman, K., (2018). Legendary musician Hugh Masekela has died, from Times Live [online], Available at www.timeslive.co.za/tshisa-live/tshisa-live/2018-01-23-breaking-legendary-musician-hugh-masekela-has-died-report/ [Accessed: 24 August 2019] SABC3, (2018). Hugh Masekela Passes Away, [online], Available at www.sabc3.co.za/sabc/home/sabc3/news/details?id=f20e4843-1bea-4290-8dc1-a5a1e6940a15&title=Hugh+Masekela+Passes+Away [Accessed: 24 August 2019]

Last updated · 24 Jan 2020

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2019, September 10). The father of South African Jazz Hugh Masekela dies. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0149583

South African History Online (2019) 'The father of South African Jazz Hugh Masekela dies', South African History Online, 10 September. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0149583 (Accessed: 15 October 2026).

South African History Online, The father of South African Jazz Hugh Masekela dies [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0149583, (accessed 15 October 2026).

"The father of South African Jazz Hugh Masekela dies." South African History Online, 10 Sept. 2019, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0149583. Accessed 15 Oct. 2026.

South African History Online. "The father of South African Jazz Hugh Masekela dies." South African History Online. September 10, 2019. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0149583.