Fifty years after the Soweto Uprising, little is known about its most iconic leader, the elusive Tsietsi Mashinini, who instigated the schools protest which changed SA forever, only to flee the country, shun the ANC, hang out with Miriam Makeba, marry Miss Liberia – and be mysteriously murdered. Now, in time for this huge anniversary, respected Sowetan author and social historian Sam Mathe – who knows the Mashinini family and Tsietsi’s widow and has their support – tells Tsietsi’s full story for the first time.
Author Sam Mathe, right, with Danielle Bowler at the book launch
PiE DIGITAL WILL FROM TODAY RUN FIRST INSTALMENT OF EXTRACTS FROM THE BOOK IN OUR PIE NATIVES SECTION. OTHER EXRACTS FROM THE BOOK WILL FOLLOW. ENJOY THE READ.
Sam Mathe is an award – winning South African journalist, publisher, archivist, researcher, poet, historian and author with a particular interest in the history of South African theatre, music and literature. He’s the funding editor of Jazz Life magazine and contributing author of South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs (2010), Brenda Fassie: I’m Not Your Weekend Special (2014), Joburg Noir (2010), as well as Culture and the Liberation Struggle in South Africa (2021).
His book of South African musical biographies, From Kippie to Kippies: Group Portraits of SA Artists, was published by Themba Books. His second book, a volume of poetry, is titled When You Are Gone & Other Poems (2013). It was inspired by Covid–19 and lockdown. Mathe is also a contributing author of Journey of Soweto Entrepreneur – 1904-2024, commissioned by Dr Thami Mazwai and published by UNISA Books.