Mbongeni Ngema Biography, Profile, Age, Wife, Career & Net Worth
Mbongeni Ngema (born 1 June 1956) is a South African writer, lyricist, composer, director, and theatre producer, born in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal (near Durban). He started his career as a theatre backing guitarist.
Mbongeni Ngema Age
He was born on 1 June 1956 in Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Ngema is 65 years old as of 2021.
Mbongeni Ngema Wife
He was previously married to actress Leleti Khumalo, who received a 1988 Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for Sarafina!, as well as starring in the leading role in South Africa’s first Oscar-nominated film Yesterday.
Mbongeni Ngema Career
Born in Verulam and raised in the heart of Zululand, Mbongeni Ngema has distinguished himself as a renowned playwright, screenwriter and librettist. He is best known as the Writer of the internationally acclaimed and award-winning musical Sarafina!, which was nominated for five Tony Awards, and later nominated for the prestigious Grammy Awards. The musical won 11 NAACP Image Awards enjoyed a two-year run on Broadway, toured the US, Europe, Australia and Japan and was later adapted into a feature film starring Whoopi Goldberg, Leleti Khumalo and Miriam Makeba.
Ngema has had a string of blockbusters that include his award-winning and internationally revered Woza Albert, Township Fever (1990), which travelled from the Market Theatre to the USA the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Majestic Theatre; Mama (1995), Asinamali (1996), Maria Maria (1997), The Zulu – the musical (1999), 1906 Bhambada The Freedom Fighter, The House of Shaka (2005) and The Lion of the East (2006).
In 1998, Ngema was inducted in the New York “Walk of Fame” in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Manhattan, New York City, as one of the revered Writers of the 21st century. In 2001 during the African Renaissance festival, his name was engraved on the entrance of the City Hall in Durban alongside those of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Miriam Makeba and other heroes of the liberation struggle.
Several books and academic work have been written about Mbongeni Ngema and his celebrated works, including Nothing Except Ourselves by Laura Jones (USA), The Best of Mbongeni Ngema, The man and his music by Isabel Cooke (RSA), An investigation into the creation and interpretation in Mbongeni Ngema’s intra-cultural Theatre – N. O. Sabelo (UKZN Thesis).
Ngema has tapped into his own richly-nurtured background of traditional story-telling, learned as a small child from his great-grandmother, to create his spell-binding one-man show, which melds memories of his childhood, spent in the heart of Zululand, with the wealth of his heritage, bringing vividly to life the historic panoply of the Zulu nation. The Zulu continues its triumphant tours of South Africa, filling theatres around the country, and is set to soon tour abroad.
Ngema prides himself on being from the lineage of the warriors Mbandama and Sigcwelegcwele kaMhlekehleke of the Ngema clan who led the Ingoba Makhosi regiment, a pivotal regiment that defeated the British armies at the Battle of Isandlwana in the Anglo-Zulu war, on 22 January 1879.
To add to the growing list of accolades, Ngema has recently been conferred with an honorary doctorate from the Good Shepherd College of Religion, Culture and skills training. This prestige was in honour and recognition of Ngema’s service to South African music and on-going impact in the arts sector. Ngema was recently the recipient of a prestigious Life Time Achievement Award, presented to him at the Naledi Awards ceremony held in Johannesburg in 2014.
Productions
- Asinamali (1987)
- Sarafina! (1988)
- Magic at 4 AM (1993)
- Circle of Life (African voices) (1995)
- Mama (1996)
- Sarafina! 2 (1997)
- Nikeziwe (2005)
- The House of Shaka (2006)
- Lion of the East (2009)
- Take This Song in collaboration with the Reggae Band Third World
- The Zulu (2013)
Honors and Awards
- 1987 Tony Award – Asinamali! nominated for Best Direction of a Play
- 1988 Tony Award – Sarafina! received five nominations: Best Choreography, Best Direction of a Musical, Best Original Score, Best Actress in a Musical
- 1988 Grammy Award – Sarafina! nominated for a Grammy Award
- 1988 NAACP Image Awards – Sarafina! the musical won 11 NAACP Image Awards in several categories
- Grammy Award – The Lion King, Disney Animated Film, for vocal arrangements
- 1998 – inducted in the New York “Walk of Fame” in front of the Lucille Lortel Theatre in Manhattan, New York City
- 2001 – Ngema’s name engraved on City Hall Entrance in Durban alongside Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Miriam Makeba
- In 2004 he was voted 92nd in the Top 100 Great South Africans.
- 2008 Living Legend Award from the eThekwini Municipality, Durban, Kwa-Zulu Natal
- Honorary Doctorate conferred by the Good Shepherd College
- 2013 – Lifetime Achievement Award at Simon Mabhunu Sabela Film Awards
- 2013 – Inaugural Recognition Award at SAMRO’s Wawela Awards
Mbongeni Ngema Net Worth
Ngema has an estimated net worth of $2 million which he as earned from his successful career.
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