(b. 1928 East London, South Africa - d. 2012 East London)

DANIEL “KGOMO” MOROLONG

(b. 1928 East London, South Africa – d. 2012 East London)

Daniel Kgomo Morolong was born on 5 May 1928, in Tsolo Location, East London. He attended a leading educational institution, Healdtown, Fort Beaufort, where he studied for two years up to Form Two, and didn’t finish school, as the family could not afford to pay his school fees. Morolong quickly grew up to be a very busy man who held down a day job, while at night playing the double bass in a large jazz band - the African Quavers, under the leadership of Eric Nomvete. The Quavers were very popular at the time and would later become the legendary Havana Swingsters. Amazingly, he still managed to find time for another love – photography, doing his own developing and printing, often only when he got home from gigs. Initially photography was a hobby, but because of a dearth of photographers in those days, he began to take it more seriously.  In his words, ‘…those were the days when people were really hungry for photos and didn’t have cameras to do the job’. The cost of cameras, lenses, film, developing and printing would have been prohibitive for people who earned very little or nothing at all. Despite these obstacles he made it work, he says, ‘I went on...because it’s something that I loved’.