the princess in the boardroom

Yvonne Chaka Chaka on creators’ rights, raising African sons and the work that comes after the stage. Some artists never leave the spotlight, even when they step away from it. Yvonne Chaka Chaka, born Ntombizodwa Machaka in Dobsonville, Soweto, in 1965, has been at the forefront of South African popular music for more than four decades. She is the Princess of Africa: a title bestowed on her in Uganda in the early 1990s and now carried as both honorific and responsibility across the continent and the diaspora. Her catalogue includes Umqombothi, the 1988 hit that opens the first scene of Hotel Rwanda and that an entire generation of African listeners knows by heart. She has performed for Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth II, Bill Clinton, Bono and Oprah Winfrey, and she has sung at the United Nations. But the woman who arrived at Pavillon Afronova on a Monday afternoon in May was not there to perform. She came to advocate. Since 2020, Yvonne has served as Vice President of CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, the global body that defends the rights of more than five million creators worldwide. Her term is now drawing to a close.... Read more » The post the princess in the boardroom appeared first on Schön! Magazine.