Mbongeni Ngema

• Genre: Musicals

About

Ngema was the main creative force behind the hugely popular Broadway musical "Sarafina," which was later made into a movie with Whoopie Goldberg. His score helped introduce a generation of people to the exuberant harmonies of South African singing, and to the horror and confusion of life under apartheid. The show focuses on the struggles of a student named Sarafina who gets caught up in the student uprisings in Soweto in the 1970s. Ngema also wrote and directed "Woza Albert," another apartheid-era piece that helped bring the plight of South Africans to the world's attention.

- Sarah Bardeen