Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 - 10 November 2008) was a South African singer and civil rights activist. The Grammy Award winning artist is often referred to as Mama Afrika.
Early years
Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa. As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years.
Makeba first toured with an amateur group. Her professional career began in the 1950s with the Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa.
In 1959, she performed in the musical King Kong alongside Hugh Masekela, her future husband. Though she was a successful recording artist, she was only receiving a few dollars for each recording session and no provisional royalties, and was keen to go to the United States. Her break came when she had a short guest appearance in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959 by independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. The short cameo made an enormous impression on the viewers and Lionel Rogosin managed to organise a visa for her to leave South Africa and to attend the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival.
Exile
Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including "Pata Pata", "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa), and "Malaika". In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid.
She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, [3] and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.[4]
Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife.[5] Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She was one of the African and Afro-American entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre. Makeba also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.
After the death of her only daughter Bongi Makeba in 1985, she moved to Brussels. In 1987, she appeared in Paul Simon's Graceland tour. Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography Makeba: My Story (ISBN 0-453-00561-6).
Return to South Africa
Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990. In November 1991, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Cosby Show, in the episode "Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet". In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, as the title character's mother, "Angelina." She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony where she and others recalled the days of apartheid.
On 16 October 1999, Miriam Makeba was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).[6] In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by Cedric Samson and Michael Levinsohn[7] was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music" category.[8] In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she shared the Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life. [4]
Her publicist notes that Makeba had suffered "severe arthritis" for some time.[9]
Death
On 9 November 2008, she became ill while taking part in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the Region of Campania. The concert was being held in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. Makeba suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the "Pineta Grande" clinic where doctors were unable to revive her.[10][11][12]
Several reports gave her cause of death as cardiac arrest, apparently quoting a death certificate signed by a licensed physician: most physicians regard cardiac arrest a symptom of death, rather than a cause. In Makeba's case, the cause would be a myocardial infarction (heart attack).[citation needed]
[edit] Discography
Miriam Makeba and Dizzy Gillespie in concert (1991).
Discography
Studio albums
* Miriam Makeba: 1960 - RCA LSP2267
* The Many Voices Of Miriam Makeba: 1960 - Kapp KL1274
* The World Of Miriam Makeba: 1963 - RCA LSP2750
* Makeba: 1964 - RCA LSP2845
* Makeba Sings: 1965 - RCA LSP3321
* An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba (with Harry Belafonte): 1965 - RCA LSP3420
* The Magic of Makeba: 1965 - RCA LSP3512
* The Magnificient Miriam Makeba: 1966 - Mercury 134016
* All About Miriam: 1966 - Mercury 134029
* Miriam Makeba In Concert!: 1967 - Reprise RS6253
* Pata Pata: 1967 - Reprise RS6274
* Makeba!: 1968 - Reprise RS6310
* Live in Tokyo: 1968 - Reprise SJET8082
* Keep Me In Mind: 1970 - Reprise RS6381
* A Promise: 1974 - RCA YSPL1-544
* Live In Conakry - Appel A L'Afriqu: 1974 - Sonodisc SLP22
* Miriam Makeba & Bongi: 1975 - Sonodisc SLP48
* Live in Paris: 1977 - CD6508
* Country Girl: 1978 - Sonodisc ESP165518
* Comme Une Symphonie d'Amour: 1979
* Sangoma: 1988 - Warner Bros. 25673
* Welela: 1989 - Gallo CDGSP3084
* Eyes On Tomorrow: 1991 - Gallo CDGSP3086
* Sing Me A Song: 1993 - CDS12702
* Homeland, 2000 - Putumayo PUTU1642
* The Definitive Collection, Wrasse Records - 2002
* Best of The Early Years, Wrasse Records - 2002
* Live at Berns Salonger, Stockholm, Sweden, 1966: 2003 - Gallo Music GWVCD-49
* Reflecting, 2004 - Gallo Music GWVCD-51
* Makeba Forever, 2006, Gallo Music CDGURB-082
Compilations
* The Queen Of African Music - 17 Great Songs, 1987
* Africa 1960-65 recordings, 1991
* Eyes On Tomorrow, 1991
* The Best Of Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks: 1956 - 1959 recordings, 1998
* Mama Africa: The Very Best Of Miriam Makeba, 2000
* The Guinea Years, 2001
* The Definitive Collection, 2002
* The Best Of The Early Years, 2003
