Award-winning South African singer Zahara, whose debut album catapulted her into mainstream culture overnight, was remembered on Tuesday following her death at the age of 36.
The record label and South Africa’s minister of the arts confirmed Zahara’s passing late on Monday night in the Johannesburg hospital where she had been hospitalized for the first time last month.
Born Bulelwa Mkutukana into a low-income family in a community close to East London, Zahara rose to fame with her signature guitar and enormous Afro hairdo.
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When Zahara was younger, she taught herself how to play the guitar and participated in choruses. Her voice was likened to those of India Arie, Joan Armatrading, and Tracy Chapman.
She burst into the music scene in 2011, with her debut album Loliwe selling out in 72 hours.
Zahara was billed alongside Hugh Masekela, James Ingram and Lauryn Hill at Africa’s biggest jazz festival in 2012.
She released five albums and won 17 South African Music Awards, the country’s top accolade, in all.
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In a 2012 interview with AFP Zahara told how she had sang for South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela at his home.
“That was emotional for me. I remember I cried when I started singing to the finish and I even messed up my song,” she recalled.
Sports, arts and culture minister Zizi Kodwa wrote on X, the former Twitter, that she was “very saddened” by the death of the singer.
Warner Music Africa, her record company, also said it was “mourning” the death.
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“Her lasting memory in our hearts and mind must be her ability to bring comfort and resonate with the struggles of the poorest of the poor,” the radical Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party said in a statement.
No cause of death has been announced but Zahara was admitted to hospital last month “following complaints about physical pains”, according to a family statement at the time.
In 2019, her manager revealed she was battling liver disease.
