Brenda Fassie Is Commemorated In This New Comic Book Honoring Iconic Women
South African music legend, Brenda Fassie is immortalized in the new comic series, Femme Magnifique.
Brenda Fassie, "The Queen of African Pop," is immortalized in a new comic series celebrating iconic women.
Femme Magnifique: A Salute to 50 Magnificent Women, a collection of "comic-book stories [that] celebrate women who crack ceilings, take names, and change the game," as described in their Kickstarter page, also highlights the likes of Nina Simone and Michelle Obama through animated anthologies, reports Konbini.
Fassie's segment was penned by South African author, Lauren Beukes, who chose to commemorate Fassie after being asked by Femme Magnifique editor Shelly Bond to profile an inspirational South African woman.
Beukes had many women to choose from, of course, but Fassie's one-of-a-kind persona and unparalleled contribution to pop culture made her an obvious choice.
“I had many to choose from, from Lilian Ngoyi to Ruth First, Krotoa Eva and Sara Baartman," she told Brand South Africa. “But Brenda Fassie worked on so many levels, as a provocative pop star, as a lesbian icon, as a black woman who lived through apartheid and sang about the personal and the political.”
Cape Town-based graphic artist, Nana Venter, is behind the intricate illustrations which accompany the 3-page story. "Brenda was the first person to say that she ultimately ‘belonged to the people," says Venter. "She had an immense celebrity which has always been well-documented, and part of the public domain in South Africa.”
We named Fassie in our list of 12 Iconic African Women Who Have Shaped Our Culture back in May.
Check out a preview of the story below. The full Femme Mangifique installment is out September 27.
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