Mbongeni Ngema, Creator of Broadway’s ‘Sarafina!’, Dies in Crash
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Mbongeni Ngema, the South African playwright and composer who created Broadway’s Sarafina!, was killed in a head-on car crash while returning from a funeral. The 1988 play about a young student during apartheid—which was turned into a movie starring Whoopi Goldberg—won Grammy and Tony Awards. The 68-year-old Ngema was described by his homeland’s Leftist party as “more than just an artist; he was a cultural icon, and a beacon of hope during some of our darkest times.”
