Mbongeni Ngema, Tony-Nominated Sarafina! Playwright and Director, Dies at 68

The South African playwright, director, composer and choreographer Mbongeni Ngema, died on December 27, 2023. Ngema was killed in a car crash in a rural town in South Africa's Eastern Cape province, the family said in a statement. He was 68.

Ngema is best known for work that explored injustice and resilience in South Africa under apartheid, including the Tony-nominated musical Sarafina!, which premiered on Broadway in 1988. It starred Leleti Khumalo, to whom Ngema was married from 1992 to 2005. Ngema wrote the musical's book, music and lyrics, in addition to directing and providing musical arrangements. The production received five Tony nominations, including for Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical and Best Original Score. It was adapted into a 1992 film of the same name, starring Whoopi Goldberg. 

Sarafina! is based on the events of the 1976 Soweto uprising, when thousands of students participated in apartheid protests resulting in around 600 deaths. Ngema’s actors, he said, were “ambassadors” of the anti-apartheid cause. Ngema collaborated with South African jazz great Hugh Masekela on the score for Sarafina!, which features mbaqanga, a fusion of traditional South African music with the sounds of American jazz, rock and gospel. Ngema called it the “music of liberation.” 

Mbongeni Ngema was born in 1955 in Verulam, South Africa. He was working as a manual laborer in a fertilizer factory before pursuing acting and writing for the theater. His 1981 play Woza Albert satirized the second coming of Jesus Christ as a Black man in South Africa during apartheid. It was followed by 1983’s Asinamali!—a musical about police violence, an early performance of which was raided by police, leading to the arrest of its cast and audience members. Ngema wrote and directed the show, which was staged in New York in 1986, first in Harlem and then at Lincoln Center as part of a festival at South African theater. “It shows that no matter how bad things get, victory is inevitable,” he told The New York Times that year. “The spirit of the people shall prevail.” Asinamali! was adapted into a 2017 film, which Ngema directed. Ngema also provided vocal arrangements for Disney's 1994 animated film, The Lion King. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa paid tribute to Ngema in a statement: “The many productions he created or to which he contributed inspired resilience and pride among us as fellow South Africans and took South Africa and our continent into the theaters, homes and consciousness of millions of people around the world.” In its tribute to Ngema, the Economic Freedom Fighters party described Ngema as “more than just an artist; he was a cultural icon and a beacon of hope during some of our darkest times.”