Jonathan Butler and Dr Trevor Jones Among Recipients of the Order of Ikhamanga

The Presidency has announced the recipients of the Order of Ikhamanga, a national honour recognising South African citizens who have distinguished themselves in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism and sport. Among the silver recipients are two figures whose contributions to music have reverberated far beyond South Africa’s borders: guitarist and vocalist Jonathan Butler, and film score composer Dr Trevor Jones.

Jonathan Butler grew up in Athlone in the 1960s, navigating childhood under apartheid with music as both refuge and ambition.

As a young teenager he entered a local talent contest and won, which opened the door to touring with a musical company across South Africa. He would perform in grand whites-only concert halls where he was not permitted to use the bathroom, then travel to a crumbling township venue the following evening to perform again.

At thirteen, Mr.Butler came to the attention of British record producer Clive Caulder, who signed him to Jive Records. He became one of the first artists of colour to receive national airplay on white radio stations in South Africa, a milestone that sounds almost unbelievable today but was historic at the time. His first single became the first song by a black artist played on white radio, and it went on to win the South African equivalent of a Grammy. His guitar work draws on gospel, smooth jazz and South African melodic tradition.

Mr. Butler relocated to the United Kingdom in the early 1980s and now lives in California. In 2023, he was awarded a Civic Honours by the City of Cape Town.

Dr Trevor Jones was born in District Six in 1949, a neighbourhood that apartheid would later bulldoze out of existence. He left South Africa at seventeen on a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music in London, and from there made his way to the National Film School in England, where he became the first composer ever to enrol.

Dr Jones has gone on to score more than 120 film and television productions, and is regarded globally as one of the five foremost composers of original film music working today. Among them: The Last of the Mohicans, Notting Hill, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and In the Name of the Father. He has recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted the London Philharmonic, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra of Spain, the Greek National Radio Symphony Orchestra, and session orchestras in Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris. His collaborative work includes Sting, U2, David Bowie and Britney Spears.

The Order of Ikhamanga takes its name from the Xhosa word for the Strelitzia reginae, more widely recognised around the world as the crane flower or bird of paradise. It is one of the most visually striking flowers on earth and, as it happens, entirely South African in origin, growing wild in the Eastern Cape. Its global fame has long outrun its story of origin, which makes it an apt symbol for an award of this nature. The Ikhamanga is the central motif of the Order, chosen to represent the singular beauty of what South Africans have contributed to arts, culture, literature, music, journalism and sport. Each award comprises three elements: a neck badge in gold, silver or bronze worn on a neck band; a miniature medallion that can be worn as a brooch or on the breast pocket; and a lapel rosette, also in the recipient’s corresponding metal. For Butler and Jones, that metal is silver, and it is well earned.

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