Miriam Makeba

Zenzile Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 â€" 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist.

In the 1960s, she was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music around the world. She is best known for the song "Pata Pata", first recorded in 1957 and released in the U.S. in 1967. She recorded and toured with many popular artists, such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela.

Makeba campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. The South African government responded by revoking her passport in 1960 and her citizenship and right of return in 1963. As the apartheid system crumbled she returned home for the first time in 1990.

Makeba died of a heart attack on 9 November 2008 after performing in a concert in Italy organised to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the region of Campania.

Early years

Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in Johannesburg on 4 March 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma (traditional healer-herbalist). Her father, who died when she was six years old, was a Xhosa. When she was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested for selling umqombothi, an African homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. Her mother was sentenced to a six-month prison term, so Miriam spent her first six months of life in jail. As a child, she sang in the choir of the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, a primary school that she attended for eight years.

In 1950 at the age of eighteen, Makeba gave birth to her only child, Bongi Makeba, whose father was Makeba's first husband James Kubay. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband left her shortly afterwards.

Her professional career began in the 1950s when she was featured in the South African jazz group the Manhattan Brothers, and appeared for the first time on a poster. She left the Manhattan Brothers to record with her all-woman group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa. As early as 1956, she released the single "Pata Pata", which was played on all the radio stations and made her name known throughout South Africa.

She had a short-lived marriage in 1959 to Sonny Pillay, a South African singer of Indian descent. Her break came in that year when she had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid documentary produced and directed by American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. The short cameo made an enormous impression on the viewers and Rogosin managed to organise a visa for her to attend the première of the film at the twenty-fourth Venice Film Festival in Italy, where the film won the prestigious Critics' Award. That year, Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African musical King Kong; among those in the cast was musician Hugh Masekela. She made her U.S. debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show.

Exile

Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to the United States and achieving fame there. When she tried to return to South Africa in 1960 for her mother's funeral, she discovered that her South African passport had been cancelled. She signed with RCA Victor and released Miriam Makeba, her first U.S. studio album, in 1960. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at John F. Kennedy's birthday party at Madison Square Garden, but Makeba did not go to the aftershow party because she was ill. President Kennedy insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up and she met the President of the United States. In 1963, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA, The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200. Later that year, after she testified against apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She was a woman without a country, but the world came to her aid, and Guinea, Belgium and Ghana issued her international passports, and she became, in effect, a citizen of the world. In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.

In 1964, Makeba and Masekela were married, divorcing two years later.

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, and it was one of the first American albums to present traditional Zulu, Sotho and Swahili songs in an authentic setting. From the time of her New York debut at the Village Vanguard, her fame and reputation grew. She released many of her most famous hits in the United States, including "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa) and "Malaika". Time called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years," and Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra. Despite the success that made her a star in the U.S., she wore no makeup and refused to curl her hair for shows, thus establishing a style that would come to be known internationally as the "Afro look". In 1967, more than ten years after she wrote the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the United States and became a worldwide hit.

Her marriage to Trinidad-born civil rights activist, Black Panther, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, her home for the next 15 years, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée. Makeba was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986. She also separated from Carmichael in 1973 and continued to perform primarily in Africa, Europe and Asia, but not in the United States, where a de facto boycott was in effect. Makeba was one of the entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre. She addressed the United Nations General Assembly for the second time in 1975. She divorced Carmichael in 1978 and married an airline executive in 1980.

After the death of her daughter Bongi in 1985, she decided to move to Brussels. In the following year, Hugh Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on the very successful Graceland Tour, which was documented on music video. Two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, were filmed in 1987 for release as Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released Sangoma ("Healer"), an a cappella album of healing chants named in honour of her mother who was a "sangoma" ("a healer"). Shortly thereafter, her autobiography Makeba: My Story was published and subsequently translated from English into other languages including German, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish. She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London, and broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million. Also referred to as Freedomfest, Free Nelson Mandela Concert, and Mandela Day, the event called for Mandela's release.

Return to South Africa

Nelson Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute increased pressure on the government of South Africa to release Mandela, and in 1990, State President of South Africa Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Nelson Mandela would shortly be released from prison. Mandela, who was effectively released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl on 11 February 1990, persuaded Miriam Makeba to return to South Africa. She returned home on 10 June 1990, on her French passport.

In 1991, Makeba, with Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone and Masekela, recorded and released her studio album, Eyes on Tomorrow. It combined jazz, R&B, pop, and African music, and was a hit in Africa. Makeba and Gillespie then toured the world together to promote it. In November of the same year, she made a guest appearance in the episode "Olivia Comes Out of the Closet" of The Cosby Show. In 1992, she starred in the film Sarafina!. The film's plot centers on students involved in the 1976's Soweto youth uprisings, and Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, "Angelina". The following year she released Sing Me a Song.

On 16 October 1999, Miriam Makeba was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by Cedric Samson and Michael Levinsohn for the New York City based record label Putumayo World Music, was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best World Music Album category. She worked closely with Graça Machel-Mandela, who at the time was the South African first lady, for children suffering from HIV/AIDS, child soldiers, and the physically handicapped.

In 2001, she was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". She shared the Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina. The prize is regarded as Sweden's foremost musical honour. They received their Prize from Carl XVI Gustaf King of Sweden during a nationally-televised ceremony at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, on 27 May 2002. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, where she and others recalled the struggles of black South Africans against the injustices of apartheid through the use of music. 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.

Death and legacy

On 9 November 2008, she became ill while taking part in a concert organised 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. Her publicist notes that Makeba had suffered "severe arthritis" for some time. She and family members were based in Northriding, Gauteng, at the time of her death.

From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute show to Makeba entitled "Hommage à Miriam Makeba" and curated by Grammy Award-winning Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angélique Kidjo for the Festival d'Ile de France, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris. The same show but with the English title of "Mama Africa: Celebrating Miriam Makeba" was held at the Barbican in London on 21 November 2009. Mama Africa, a documentary film about the life of Miriam Makeba, co-written and directed by Finnish film director Mika Kaurismäki, was released in 2011. On 4 March 2013 Google honored her with a doodle on the homepage.

Discography

Studio albums

• The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba (1960) (LP Kapp KL1274)
• Miriam Makeba (1960) (LP RCA LSP2267)
• The World of Miriam Makeba (1963) (LP RCA LSP2750) #86 (US)
• The Voice of Africa (1964) (LP RCA LSP2845) #122 (US)
• Makeba Sings! (1965) (LP RCA LSP3321)
• An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba (1965) (LP with Harry Belafonte; RCA LSP3420; Grammy Award for Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording) #85 (US)
• The Magic of Makeba (1965) (LP RCA LSP3512)
• The Magnificent Miriam Makeba (1966) (LP Mercury 134016)
• All About Miriam (1966) (LP Mercury 134029)
• Pata Pata (1967) (LP Reprise RS6274) #74 (US)
• Makeba! (1968) (LP Reprise RS6310)
• Keep Me in Mind (1970) (LP Reprise RS6381)
• A Promise (1974) (LP RCA YSPL1-544)
• Miriam Makeba & Bongi (1975) (LP with Bongi Makeba; Guinea: Editions Syliphone Conakry SLP 48)
• Country Girl (1978) (LP Sonodisc ESP165518)
• Comme une symphonie d'amour (1979) (LP Sonodisc ESP 7501)
• Sangoma (1988) (CD Warner Bros. 25673)
• Welela (1989) (CD Gallo CDGSP3084) #6 (US)
• Eyes on Tomorrow (1991) (CD Gallo CDGSP3086) #10 (US)
• Sing Me a Song (1993) (CD CDS12702)
• Homeland (2000) (CD Putumayo PUTU1642)
• Reflecting (2004) (CD Gallo Music GWVCD-51) #12 (US)
• Makeba Forever (2006) (CD Gallo Music CDGURB-082)

Live albums

• Miriam Makeba in Concert! (1967) (LP) (Reprise RS6253) #182 (US)
• Live in Tokyo (1968) (LP) (Reprise SJET8082)
• Live in Conakry: Appel a l'Afrique (1974) (LP) (Sonodisc SLP22)
• Enregistrement public au Theatre des Champs-Elysées (1977) (LP) (released on CD6508 as Pata Pata: Live in Paris in 1998)
• Live at Berns Salonger, Stockholm, Sweden, 1966 (2003) (CD and DVD) (Gallo Music GWVCD-49)

Compilations

• The Best of Miriam Makeba (LP) Canada: RCA Victor LSP-3982, 1968
• Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba (as Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba) (2xLP) Camden PJL2-8042, 1975
• Miriam Makeba (LP) Italy: Record Bazaar RB 254, 1980
• The Queen of African Music (CD) Verlag Pläne 831 655â€"938, 1987
• Africa (CD) Germany: Novus 3155-2-N/ND 83155, 1991
• Miriam Makeba and The Skylarks: Volume 1 (as Miriam Makeba and The Skylarks; Remastered from 78/45 RPM recorded between 1956 and 1959) (CD) TELCD 2303, 1991
• Folk Songs from Africa (CD) SAAR CD 12514, 1994
• En public à Paris et Conakry (CD), 1996
• Hits and Highlights (CD), 1997
• Miriam Makeba and The Skylarks: Volume 2 (as Miriam Makeba and The Skylarks; Remastered from 78/45 RPM recorded between 1956 and 1959) (CD) TELCD 2315, 1997
• The Best of Miriam Makeba (CD) BMG, 2000
• Legend (CD) Next Music CDSL21, 2001
• Mama Africa: The Very Best of Miriam Makeba (CD), 2001
• The Guinea Years (CD/LP) STCD3017/SLP48, 2001
• Mother Africa: The Black Anthology (CD), 2002
• The Best of Miriam Makeba: The Early Years (CD) Wrasse WRASS 088, 2002
• The Definitive Collection (CD) UK: Wrasse WRASS 062, 2002
• Her Essential Recordings (2xCD) Manteca MANTDBL502, 2006
• Mama Afrika 1932â€"2008 (CD) Gallo, 2009

Extended plays

• Makeba â€" Belafonte (as Miriam Makeba and Harry Belafonte) (Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM) Germany: RCA Victor EPA 9035, 1961
• The Click Song (Vinyl, 7", EP) France: London RE 10.145, 1963
• Chants d'Afrique (Vinyl, 7") France: RCA Victor 86.374, 1964

Singles

• "Duze" (1956) (10-inch shellac 78 rpm mono Gallotone GB.2062)
• "Pass Office Special" (1957) (10-inch shellac 78 rpm mono Gallotone GB.2134)
• "The Click Song" / "Mbube" (1963) (7-inch vinyl London HL 9747)
• "Malaika" / "Malcolm X" (1965) (7-inch vinyl Kenya: Sonafric SYL 565)
• "Pata Pata" (1967) (7-inch vinyl Reprise 0606) #12 (US)
• "Malayisha" (1967) (7-inch vinyl Reprise)
• "Emavungwini" (1968) (7-inch vinyl France, Spain: Reprise)
• "I Shall Be Released" / "Iphi Ndilela (Show Me the Way)" (1969) (7-inch vinyl Germany: Reprise RA 0804)
• "Pata Pata" / "Click Song Number 1" (1972) (7-inch vinyl Germany, Netherlands: Reprise REP 14 217)
• "We Got to Make It" / "Promise" (1975) 7-inch vinyl with Instrumentalgruppe German Democratic Republic: AMIGA 4 56 044, 1974, and France: Disques Espérance)
• "Pata Pata" / "Malayisha" (1976) (7-inch vinyl Italy: Reprise 14 267, released in France in 1978)
• "Hauteng" / "Talking and Dialoging" (1978) (7-inch vinyl France: Disques Espérance ESP 155027)
• "Comme une symphonie d'amour" (1979) (7-inch vinyl France: Disques Espérance ESP 65.009)
• "Give Me a Reason" / "Africa" (1989) (7-inch vinyl Italy: Philips 875 308-7)
• "Pata Pata 2000" (2000) (CD Putumayo PUTU 919-S)

Filmography

See also

• Culture of South Africa
• Music of South Africa
• 1966 Grammy Awards

Notes

Footnotes

References

External links

• Official website
• Miriam Makeba at Allmusic
• Miriam Makeba discography
• Miriam Makeba discography at Discogs
• Miriam Makeba at Find a Grave
• Miriam Makeba at the Internet Movie Database
• Miriam Makeba at National Public Radio
• Cowell, Alan (10 November 2008). "Miriam Makeba, 76, Singer and Activist, Dies â€" Obituary (Obit)". Africa (NYTimes.com). Retrieved 8 November 2010.