Struan Douglas is a musician and author born in KwaZulu Natal in 1976. As a cultural writer he has focused on South African Jazz writing since '94. He has written columns for Downbeat, Sawubona and Big Issue Magazine, is the founder of afribeat.com A Pan African music content portal and the author of the Story of South African Jazz Book Series which has taken South African jazz into syllabus grades 10-12. As an educator he formed Sausage Films with Vusi Mchunu to create multi-media interventions. Together they have created iMbizo yamaKhono (Gathering of the Arts) a series of Music and Heritage Education materials for schools, universities and skills transfer. Douglas has produced multiple music initiatives including Dancing with the Diaspora, a Pan African festival circuit presented at WOMEX Berlin 2000, Archive Africa re-release of SABC archives, Wondergigs Live Recording Sessions and The Goema Captains of Cape Town. He is also a trumpet and flugel horn player performing in Johannesburg with the UFO Experience.
He has received numerous international invitations, including to FESPAM Congo Brazzaville, FESPACO Burkina Faso, MASA Abidjan, Marrabenta Festival Maputo, the European festival circuit and the Jazz in Germany Foreign Office Visitors Programme.
In 2020 together with Vusi Mchunu Sausage Film Company was founded to brin the Story of South African Jazz into education, grades 11 – 12. Sausage Films has since produced the Music Free Learning Series bringing quality free music education into syllabus.