Taliep Petersen

Taliep Petersen, born on 15 April 1950 in District Six, the multicultural Cape Town neighborhood, was a South African singer, composer, director, and Broadway book writer. He died on 16 December 2006.

Petersen's earliest public performance came at age six, when he sang at the Coon Carnival. His formal stage career began with a role in a 1974 production of Hair, after which he appeared in Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. He subsequently traveled to England to study classical guitar at the Fitznell School of Music, and upon returning wrote his first revue, Carnival a la District Six, drawing on the New Year celebrations of his home city. During the 1980s he formed a band called Sapphyre, which performed interpretations of traditional Cape Malay songs.

In 1986, Petersen began a long creative partnership with David Kramer, collaborating on District Six: The Musical, a work rooted in the culture and history of Cape Town's Coloured community. The two went on to produce Poison, Fairyland, Crooners, Kat and the Kings, Klop Klop, and Spice Drum Beat: Ghoema together. Several of these productions toured internationally. Kat and the Kings ran in Las Vegas, on Broadway in New York, and in London's West End. In 1999, Petersen and Kramer received the Olivier Award for Best New Musical for Kat and the Kings, with the cast also sharing the Best Actor in a Musical award. The Broadway production earned Petersen a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Orchestrations in 2000. Ghoema had opened at London's Tricycle Theatre shortly before his death.

Beyond the stage, Petersen worked in South African television and recorded music. In 2001 he presented a television series about District Six titled O'se Distrik Ses and appeared on the reality talent programs Idols and Joltyd. He created the sitcom Alie Barber in 2002, which returned for a second season in 2005. Songs from the series were released on the 2006 album Deur Dik en Dun, his first recording in Afrikaans.

Petersen was a practicing Muslim, was twice married, and fathered six children. He was shot and killed at his home on 16 December 2006. His wife, Najwa Petersen, was arrested on 18 June 2007 in connection with the murder and was subsequently charged alongside three men with planned and premeditated murder. On 2 December 2008, the Cape High Court convicted Najwa Petersen and the three co-accused — Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen, and Jefferson Snyder — of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances. Najwa Petersen was sentenced to 28 years in prison on 4 February 2009. A bridge over Woodstock on Nelson Mandela Boulevard in Cape Town was established in Petersen's name as a lasting civic tribute.