Rest in peace Busi Mhlongo

Busi Mhlongo, queen of modern Zulu music, died after a long battle with breast cancer, on Tuesday, 15 June 2010. A virtuoso, a singer, a dancer, a composer whose music defies categorization, Busi was born in 1947 in Natal, South Africa.

 Her songs, otherworldly live performances and gender-defying role in the traditionally patriarchal maskanda musical genre speak about love, losing love, the complex struggle for survival in South Africa, the destruction of traditional culture and the need to "re-invent" tradition in a new and urban context.

 Having succeeded in melding traditional Zulu music, "Maskanda", into a new one that informs us of its roots and of the concerns of contemporary South African women, Busi Mholongo recorded four albums - Babhemu, Urban Zulu, Freedom and Amakholwa. Deep respect. Rest in Peace Ma Mhlongo.

 Advancing the interrelated questions of history and identity, gender and sensuality and establishing something new in South African culture as well as in music, her work speaks of a cultural position that simultaneously and from the start resists both marginalization and assimilation. This refusal to be displaced or to be incorporated is at the heart of the genre-bending evident in her work-it explains why the music is, and must be, simultaneously ancient and new, traditional and urban.

In her attempt to seize the universe’s complexity, to reveal new ways of belonging in the world and possibilities for an art grounded in a localized cosmopolitan culture, she will continue to bring us the sound of the universe inside and outside our heads, her work a sonar of body and within and beyond us. Deep respect. Rest in Peace Ma Mhlongo.