by Jane Hendry

Created on: October 01, 2008

A Tribute to Lucky Dube, South African Born Global Icon 1964 - 2007

Born on the 3rd of August 1964, to a single, poverty stricken, mother in a country governed by a harsh and oppressive establishment, Lucky Dube had a lot to strive for to become the internationally recognised icon he is today. His tragic and violent death in October 2007 brought to a crushing end a true story of the ability to change one's own destiny and to be set free.

Freedom for Lucky Dube meant more than merely loosening the stranglehold of South Africa's apartheid regime; first he had to free himself and his family from the constraints of poverty and poor education. Lucky and his two siblings, Thandi and Patrick, spent much of their childhood living with their grandmother who Dube adored and who he claimed had an incredibly positive impact on the person he became. Their mother, who was deserted by their father shortly before Lucky's birth, had to relocate to find work which would earn her enough to pay for her family to live.

Lucky started his working life as a child in order to help his family financially. His first jobs were doing gardening for wealthy people, but he soon realised that if he was to change his destiny and free himself of his burdens he would need to get an education. Dube began to go to school and, while there, he joined the choir. This gave him a cause and encouraged him to stick with his education as he had found where his true passion lay: in music. Dube excelled at school and was popular with both teachers and pupils. He also started a band whilst there, they called themselves The Skyway Band and were set on stardom, but that eventually fell apart and Lucky moved on.

While at school Dube discovered the Rastafari movement and when he was 18 he went on to join his first real band, The Love Brothers. Over the next 25 years Dube's passion for music would help rank him as South Africa's biggest selling Reggae Artist, and a global icon.

In 1982 Dube headed to Johannesburg
to start working on his first Mbaqanga album. This was a very influential style at the time and combined upbeat tempo music with socially descriptive lyrics. He released 5 highly successful albums, under the name Lucky Dube and the Supersoul, before deciding to turn to reggae. On release of the 5 album Dave Segal, who went on to become his sound engineer, convinced Lucky to drop the Supersoul bit and thereafter all albums were recorded as Lucky Dube.

Dube saw a link between the sociopolitical messages of Jamaican

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