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Brenda Fassie: B is for ‘Boss Girl’

On her posthumous 60th birthday, 40th anniversary of her eponymous hit album and 20 years since her tragic death, Brenda Fassie’s biographer Bongani Madondo looks back at his enduring fascination with her work

08 December 2024 - 00:00 By Bongani Madondo

Salman Rushdie has a “thing” for beauty. He is drawn to mystery, to love and — inevitably — to trauma: all shorthand for “magic”. And so am I. In his delightful, magic realism, The Enchantress of Florence, Rushdie throws us a riddle via one of his protagonists, “the traveller”, who wonders about himself: “Is power the only justification for an extrovert personality?” He could not answer, but found himself hoping that beauty might be another excuse, for he was confident of his beauty. He also knew that his looks had a power of their own. ..

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