Wits confer posthumous Honorary Doctorate’s to Sibongile Khumalo.
South Africa’s first lady of song, Dr Sibongile Khumalo, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Music posthumously by the University of the Witwatersrand on 21 April.
Sibongile Khumalo was a Wits alumna and supporter of the university. She gave freely of her time to enrich the lives of Wits students, passed away on 28 January 2021 and mesmerised audiences across the globe. In a virtual graduation ceremony where teaching students from the Faculty of Humanities received their degrees, daughter of the late jazz singer and cultural activist Ayanda Khumalo accepted the award. Khumalo expressed that the family is ‘humbled and filled with gratitude and pride at the honour of receiving this award on behalf of our mother, Dr Sibongile Khumalo’.
Khumalo came from a musical dynasty and her father, Professor Khabi Mgoma was also awarded an honorary doctorate in 1987 by Wits University for his contribution to the preservation and development of South African music.
Ayanda delivered an apt address, partly penned by her mother, to the graduating teaching students. The speech reflected Sibongile’s days as a child in Soweto and the music programme that operated from Room 2 in Orlando High School.
She explained, “Room 2 was a small space where dreams were born, nurtured, given wind and allowed to soar,” despite the ravages of the apartheid environment.
The late doctor’s daughter recalled how ecstatic her mother was in March 2020 when she learned that Wits would confer an honorary doctorate. “Sadly she never got to experience this moment physically, but I know that she is with us in spirit.”
Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at Wits Professor Garth Stevens shared, “She (Dr Sibongile Khumalo) was an ardent proponent of arts education and how it can be used for social upliftment and justice. She inspired the creation of new music by South African composers, both in the classical and jazz genres.” Ayanda urged the audience to reimagine their communities, adding that every child deserved a Room 2. Displaying storyteller talent, Ayanda invoked some of her mother’s values, favourite poets and African philosophers before concluding that ‘we need to commit ourselves to a loving, joyful and compassionate world’.
