Matshikiza, Todd

▪ South African author

born 1920/21, Queenstown, S.Af.

died March 4, 1968, Lusaka, Zambia

      journalist, writer, and musician noted for his score for the musical play King Kong (1960) and for his short stories.

      Matshikiza divided his career from the start between musical and literary activities. Trained as a teacher at Lovedale, near the University College of Fort Hare, he wrote a monthly column for Drum magazine and also worked as a jazz critic. His choral music was widely performed by South African choirs and won him a commission for the Johannesburg Festival in 1956. When he and his family accompanied the King Kong cast to London in 1961, he decided to stay; there he collaborated with the white South African writer Alan Paton on the musical Mkumbane, presented radio programs for the British Broadcasting Corporation, and wrote autobiographical short stories of his life in London and South Africa.

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