Ipi Tombi is a 1974 musical by South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n writers Bertha Egnos Godfrey and her daughter Gail Lakier, telling the story of a young black man leaving his village and young wife to work in the mines of Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

. The show, originally called The Warrior, uses pastiches of a variety of South African indigenous musical styles.

The show, which starred Margaret Singana

Margaret Singana

Margaret Singana was a South African musician.Margaret Singana started out her 'career' by singing as she cleaned houses for people. She was a domestic worker that enjoyed her occupation...

, enjoyed major success in South Africa and Nigeria, and toured Europe, the United States and Canada to critical acclaim. It played in the West End

West End theatre

West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 at Her Majesty's Theatre

Her Majesty's Theatre

Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, in Haymarket, City of Westminster, London. The present building was designed by Charles J. Phipps and was constructed in 1897 for actor-manager Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who established the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at the theatre...

 and on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

at the Harkness Theatre.

External links

• The African Activist Archive Project website has a photograph of a January 12, 1977 Ipi Tombi Protest at the Harkness Theatre in New York.