Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba (1932-2008) was a singer, songwriter, activist and actress.

Fondly known as "the goddess of African song" she was also later known as "Mama Afrika".

Biography

Born Zenzile Miriam Makeba (aka "Zenzi") 4 March 1932 in Prospect Township, Johannesburg, the daughter of Christina and Caswell Makebashe. She grew up in in Nelspruit in the then Eastern Transvaal till she was 5 years old, when her father died. They then moved to Pretoria, where she sang in church and school choirs in the 1940'S. When she was 16 Makeba left school and got a job as a domestic worker in Johannesburg.

There she got her first real break and began to build her reputation in the music industry by singing for groups like The Cuban Brothers, a South African close harmony group (c 1950s), the famous The Manhattan Brothers and the all-female group The Skylarks.

In 1959 Makeba appeared as a singer in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa, which placed the Apartheid government under the international spotlight. As consequence she was subjected to harassment by the ruling party eventually leading to her passport being revoked and withdrawn while she was outside the country and causing her to stay in exile in London. When her mother died in 1960 she could therefore not return to her funeral.

In 1963 Makeba testified before the United Nations (UN) about this act by the of how she had been stripped of her citizenship, and as result her music was banned by the state broadcasters in South Africa.

Makeba went on to live in numerous countries over the next 30 or so years, among them the United States of America, France, Guinea and Belgium. During the 1970s and 1980s she also toured various other parts of the world and continued to speak out against Apartheid in various forums.

By the late 1980s and the end of apartheid she eventually returned to South Africa and continued with her singing career. In 2005, Makeba announced her retirement from the mainstream music industry, but continued to make guest appearances and to do smaller performances.

Makeba died on 9 November 2008 while performing in a concert organized for Roberto Saviano, an Italian writer threatened with death by the Mafia after he exposed their underground dealings.

She had been married three times, first to jazz musician Shunna "Sonny" Pillay[1] (whom she divorced), then Hugh Masekela and finally the American activist Stokely Carmichael[2].

In 1993 she received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from the University of Cape Town and her autobiography (Makeba, My Story) was published in 1994.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

She first appeared as a film actress in the documentary film Come Back, Africa (1957) followed by stage work playing the female lead (shebeen queen "Joyce") in the pivotal musical King Kong (1959). The latter was staged by the Union Artists at the Wits University Great Hall in 1959, directed by Leon Gluckman, with Stanley Glasser (aka "Spike") as the musical director, Arthur Goldreich as the designer and Arnold Dover as the choreographer. The rest of the cast included Nathan Mdledle in the lead role, Hugh Masekela, Joe Mogotsi and Peggy Phango.

After her gradual re-visits in the 1980s and ultimate return to the South Africa in 1990 she began performing regularly again and also starred in the film Sarafina (1986).

Sources

Mona de Beer 1995. Revised ed. Who Did What in South Africa. Johannesburg: Ad Donker.

Peter Joyce. 1999. A Concise Dictionary of South African Biography. Cape Town: Francolin Publishers.

Percy Tucker 1997. Just the Ticket. My 50 Years in Show Business. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.

https://realafricanpublishers.com/shadow-people/

https://african.pictures/asset/25920/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Makeba

Offical Miriam Makeba Website [3]

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