Bertha Egnos

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 in London; she also studied jazz piano with Reginald Foresythe while she was in England, and made a few solo recordings.

(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.

[2] 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;[3] 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.

[5] Despite these criticisms, an updated version of the show continues to be performed, in South Africa and elsewhere, years after Egnos's death.