It is with great sadness that OffBeat learned of the passing of trumpet master Hugh Masekela. The 78-year-old South African luminary and outspoken anti-apartheid activist died on Tuesday, January 23 in Johannesburg.

As reported by the New York Times, Masekela’s music “became symbolic of the country’s anti-apartheid movement” and he was himself exiled for three decades. Also described as a “pioneer of South African jazz,” Masekela will be remembered for songs like “Stimela (Coal Train),” “Mace and Grenades” and “Mandela (Bring Him Back Home),” all of which embodied the struggle of his people. Music and activism merged also in 1986, when he founded the International School of Music in Botswana.

In a 2017 interview with Jennifer Odell for gambit, Masekela said “I don’t think I’m trying to be political. It’s just a fact that we’ve been working in the colonial factory for 500 years, and we still haven’t woken up to just how scattered we were by the colonial systems. We’re at a point now where we actually believe that our only heritage was primitive and backwater and all these negatives.”

Citing illness, Masekela canceled his 2017 Jazz Fest appearance. Today, we remember him and The Union of South Africa with “Goin’ Back to New Orleans.”