Miriam Makeba will be missed not only by South Africa but by all of the African continent and the world. She was commonly known in South Africa as "Mama Africa" and was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa.

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 US. Her break came when she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1960. In 1963 she testified about apartheid before the United Nations Committee Against Apartheid,, as a result the South African government banned her music, revoked her citizenship and right of return. She stayed in the U.S. and married Stokely Carmichael, a Black Panther leader. That began her exile from her South African homeland. After harassment by U.S. authorities she fled to exile in Guinea. Her South African passport was revoked shortly afterwards.

Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte who assisted her in gaining entry to fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including Pata Pata, The Click Song, 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.

Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She 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.

Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990. In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings. She also took part in the 2002 documentary Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony where she and others recalled the days of Apartheid.

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 14 month worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life.

Sadly toward the end of 2008, Mariam Makeba died while performing on stage at a concert ,in Italy, in aid of Roberto Saviano, the young author of the anti-Mafia book and movie "Gomorrah".  Jazz pioneers from Paris said "It was a beautiful death, worthy of her memory. I would be proud to go like that".  Nelson Mandela, who knew Makeba well, said "She was South Africa's first lady of song and so richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika. She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours.  It was fitting that her last moments were spent on a stage, enriching the hearts and lives of others - and again in support of a good cause."

In her own words from her autobiography, "I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising".  We have lost a beautiful extraordinary woman who survived many tribulations in her life. But her finest voice and soul will always remain in our memories.

For more information, follow these links

http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4707158

http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4707031

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-11-11-mama-africas-remains-to-return-sa

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-11-10-miriam-makeba-dies-in-italy

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-11-10-sa-mourns-makeba-musical-mother-of-the-nation

Page Updated: 26 April 2010