"mama africa" miriam makeba dies

Heart attack claims life of inspirational artist

Just minutes after performing on stage at a political benefit concert in Italy on Sunday night, legendary South African singer Miriam Makeba suffered a heart attack and died before she could receive hospital treatment. She was 76.

Makeba had been in semi-retirement since 2005 after a decorated recording career to match her colourful and often controversial private life. Born in Johannesburg, she began her professional career in the 1950s singing with the Manhattan Brothers before forming her own band, The Skylarks, who provided a South African twist on the girl group sounds coming out of the States at the time. Although she was a successful recording artist, she was poorly paid and it was her stint as an amateur actress in Lionel Rogosin’s anti-apartheid documentary, ‘Come Back, Africa’, in 1959 that enabled her to break through to an international audience and earn a decent crust. However, the repercussions for the singer were grave and she was effectively exiled from her home country. She received honorary citizenship of at least 10 other countries and would later testify against apartheid in front of a United Nations council before joining them as a Guinean delegate, having moved to Guinea following her controversial marriage to civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael in 1968.

Musically, Makeba’s career is dotted with highlights. In 1966, she and Harry Belafonte won a Grammy for Best Folk Recording for their anti-apartheid album, An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba. In 1974, she was invited to perform at the famous ‘Rumble In The Jungle’ boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Forman. In 1987, she sang with Paul Simon on his Graceland world tour. In 2000, her album Homeland scored her another Grammy nomination. In 2002, she won the 11th annual Polar Music Prize for services to world music. As an actress, she starred in various political films including 1992’s ‘Sarafina!’ and the 2002 documentary ‘Amandla!’. As an activist, she was honoured with a number of peace prizes and started her own chain of care homes for destitute young girls after Nelson Mandela encouraged her repatriation in South Africa in the 1990s. Her only daughter, Bongi Makeba, herself a singer-songwriter, died in 1985 during childbirth.

While her autobiography ‘Makeba: My Story’, originally published in 1988, appears to be out of print in this country, her 40-track retrospective The Empress Of African Song spans her entire recording career and is a great place to start if you’re interested in finding out more about her inspirational life.

RIP, Miriam.

Alan Pedder

 

‘Mayibuye’

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0t4Yibsh64]

‘Mbube’

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDtlB9ZEjdo]

Written by: Wears The Trousers magazine

Tags: alan pedder, miriam makeba, news

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 12:53 am and is filed under news, the inside leg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.