Gibson Kente

(19**-2004) Playwright, actor, teacher, musician and entrepreneur. Fondly known to many as “Bra Gib” – widely recognised to be the foremost black playwright and one of the leading cultural icons of his time. His prolific musical productions, staged between the mid-1960s and 2004, were enthusiastically received by township audiences throughout South Africa. Kente’s touring township shows ("Township musicals") came to define South African township theatre and provided the base from which much black – and other – South African theatre was later to flourish. His work to date has been poorly documented and the records of all but one of his plays were lost in a fire.