Bertha Egnos (1 January 1913 – 2 July 2003) was a South African musician, director, and composer in musical theatre, best known as the co-creator and director of ''

Ipi Tombi ''Ipi Tombi'' (also produced as ''Ipi N'tombi'', both corrupted transliterations of the Zulu ''iphi ntombi'', or "where is the girl?"), is a 1974 musical by South African writers Bertha Egnos Godfrey and her daughter Gail Lakier, telling the stor ...

''.

Early life

Bertha "BeBe" Egnos was born and raised in a Jewish family in a suburb of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. She was always musical, and left school as a young teen to start playing piano in a performing group. Around 1934 she left South Africa to work for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

in London; she also studied jazz piano with

Reginald Foresythe Reginald Foresythe (28 May 1907 – 28 December 1958) was a British jazz pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. Early life Foresythe was born and died in London. His father was a West African barrister of Sierra Leone Creole descent and h ...

while she was in England, and made a few solo recordings.

Career

Egnos returned to South Africa by 1936. During World War II, she started and led an all-woman Drum and Bugle Band. She also started writing and directing swing music revues, with titles including ''Swing 1939'' and ''Swing 1941''. After the war, she wrote musical comedies. Among her shows were ''Bo-jungle'' (1959), ''Dingaka'' (1961), ''Eureka!'' (1968), and ''Ipi-Tombi'' (1974, with her daughter Gail Lakier and 1988 “The New Generation” with nephew Geoffrey Egnos) based on an album they wrote called "The Warrior," featuring

Margaret Singana Margaret Singana (193822 April 2000), born Margaret M'cingana, was a South African musician. She is perhaps best known for her Xhosa song, "Hamba Bhekile". An English version of the song, "We Are Growing" was used as soundtrack to the South Afric ...

. ''Ipi-Tombi'' was a break-out global success, playing in London in 1975, and in New York in 1977, where it was picketed by anti-apartheid protesters; at the peak of its popularity, there were multiple touring companies performing the show worldwide, with attendant claims of exploitation of the performers in the various casts. Some of the songs from ''Ipi-Tombi'' were first written for

Eartha Kitt Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Ba ...

when she visited South Africa (Kitt declined to use them). Despite these criticisms, an updated version of the show continues to be performed, in South Africa and elsewhere, years after Egnos's death.

Personal life

Bertha Egnos married Frank Lakier, a cinema owner in

Sophiatown Sophiatown , also known as Sof'town or Kofifi, is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. Sophiatown was a black cultural hub that was destroyed under apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "apart ...

, in 1938. They had two daughters, Gail V. Lakier and Lucille Lakier Smith, a sports scientist. Egnos and Frank Lakier divorced. Egnos's second husband was Phil Godfrey. Bertha Egnos died in 2003, aged 90 years, in Johannesburg."Ipi-Ntombi Composer Dies"
''News24'' (3 July 2003).

References

External links

*
Bertha Egnos listing at IBDb
{{DEFAULTSORT:Egnos, Bertha 1913 births 2003 deaths South African musicians