Described by Nelson Mandela as, “a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours”, Miriam Zenzi Makeba died aged 76, in the early evening of 9th November after suffering a heart attack. She had just taken part in a concert in Castel Volturno, Italy organised in support of six Ghanian immigrants who were shot dead in the town, alleged victims of organised crime.
Miriam Zenzi Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932, a gospel choir singer she was part of the great South African jazz scene and began her musical career singing with the Manhattan Brothers before going on to form her own group the Skylarks with Dorothy Masuka and Dolly Rathebe. In 1959 she took the lead role in the musical King Kong and in the same year landed the starring role in the anti apartheid documentary film ‘Come Back Africa’. She was invited to present the film at its Venice Film Festival premiere. After which, she travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte. A collaborative partnership ensued which led to a career in the US and to her making history as the first African to win a Grammy award for their project, ‘An Evening with Belafonte and Makeba’. It highlighted the injustices of apartheid South Africa, a country she would be unable to set foot in for some time.
After a period of success in the U.S. which included singing for President Kennedy’s birthday in 1962, middle America was seemingly upset after she married Black Panther and civil rights campaigner, Stokely Carmichael. With tours and record deals cancelled Miriam Makeba returned to Africa in 1968. Denied access into South Africa, she made her home in Guinea with her husband, Stokely Carmichael.
Not only was her music banned in South Africa but the apartheid regime had long since revoked her citizenship and her passport, blocking entry into the country, even to attend her mother’s funeral in 1960. In 1964 Miriam Makeba addressed the United Nations Special Committee on Apartheid talking about the in-humanity of apartheid and called for an international boycott of South Africa. An experience that would stand her in good stead when Guinean president, Sekou Toure, invited her to serve as Guinea’s delegate to the United Nations. Miriam Makeba later attracted criticism closer to home, for lending support as a performer at political rallies for two West African leaders, Gnassinbe Eyadema from Togo and Ivory Coast’s Felix Houphouet- Boigny. Both of whom have been labelled dictators for violently supressing democratic movements.
In her singing career Miriam Makeba released over 26 albums spanning a period from 1960 with her debut, ‘Miriam Makeba’ to her last recording in 2006 ‘Makeba Forever’. She will however, be best remembered for the song ‘Pata Pata’ penned by Dororthy Masuka, it became Makeba’s signature tune and international breakthrough song in 1977.
After spending 31 years in exile it was the recently freed, Nelson Mandela, who pursuaded her to return home in 1990, after which she appeared in two pivotal South African films, ‘Sarafina’, 1992 about the Soweto Uprisings and ‘Amandala’, 2002, a revolution in four part harmony.
Whilst in exile she never forgot her culture or home, a fact that was recognised in bestowing her with the popular title “Mama Africa”. She was a singing legend, a great humanitarian and her name will forever be inextricably linked with the new South Africa. Esdras Kambale, Congo’s Minister of Culture called Miriam Makeba a role model for all Africans. She is survived by two grandchildren, Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Monique Lee and her great grandchildren Lindelani, Ayanda and Kwame.
