Lucky Dube

Lucky Philip Dube was born on the third of August 1964 at Ermelo, in the Eastern Transvaal of South Africa (today the province of Mpumalanga). His parents had separated before he was born, and he was raised by his mother, Sarah, who named him "Lucky" because she counted his birth a blessing after earlier losses. With his siblings, Thandi and Mandla, he spent much of his childhood in his grandmother's care while his mother travelled for work, coming of age under the hardships of apartheid.

Dube began in mbaqanga, the Zulu pop of his youth, before turning decisively to reggae — a genre he made his own instrument of conscience. His 1985 album "Think About the Children" reached platinum status and announced a major voice; over a quarter-century he recorded more than twenty albums, singing in Zulu, English and Afrikaans and becoming the best-selling African reggae artist of his era.

Through songs of racial equality, justice and dignity, he carried South Africa's story to audiences across the world, earning the Best Selling African Musician prize at the 1996 World Music Awards. His stages stretched from Johannesburg to festivals across Africa, Europe and the Americas, where crowds knew him as the principal African reggae voice of the 1990s.

On the evening of the eighteenth of October 2007, in the Johannesburg suburb of Rosettenville, Lucky Dube was shot and killed by carjackers moments after dropping two of his children at a relative's home. He was forty-three. He is honored as a prophet of song whose voice for justice outlived the violence that silenced it.