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MIRIAM
MAKEBA (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)
Miriam
Makeba, also known as Mama Africa, was beyond dispute one of South
Africa’s true legends. Born March 4, 1932 in Johannesburg, Miriam
Makeba was barely 21 years old when she, as a member of the
Manhattan Brothers, reached for the stars in her home country. It
didn’t take long before Miriam Makeba’s career was brought to
another level. In 1966 she received a Grammy Award for the album An
Evening with Harry Belafonte & Miriam Makeba, making her the first
African artist to win a Grammy. Her star rose further when she
released her 1967 globally acclaimed Pata Pata, including the
worldwide hit “Qongqothwane” (better known as the ‘Click Song’).
Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography .
Miriam Makeba used her voice to entertain, but also to give a voice
to millions of oppressed fellow South Africans who suffered as a
result of apartheid. The price she had to pay for her actions was
high, namely her South African citizenship. After she appeared, in
1960, in the an anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa, the
South African regime banned her from returning to her home country
and took away her citizenship.
This event didn’t stop her from continuing to raise her voice
against the apartheid regime. Between 1964 and 1975, as a United
Nations delegate of Guinea where she was granted asylum, Miriam
Makeba addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations
regularly on the tragic developments in South Africa.
Meanwhile she carried on singing, a process in which she put South
African music on the map. Over the years Makeba worked with artists
as Joe Sample, Stix Hooper, Arthur Adams, and David T. Walker of The
Crusaders. In the late 1980’s she joined Paul Simon and Ladysmith
Black Mambazo during their world-wide Graceland tour and in 1990 she
worked with Odetta and Nina Simone for the One Nation tour.
Following Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, the citizen of the
world Makeba returned to South Africa in December 1990; more than
thirty years after she went in exile. In April 1991 she performed
her first concert in her homeland in three decades.
The years after were busy ones for Makeba. She starred in the South
African award-winning musical Sarafina! , about the 1976 Soweto
youth uprisings, playing the role of the title character’s mother.
She then reunited with her first husband, trumpeter Hugh Masekela,
for the Tour Of Hope. She also performed at the Vatican’s Nevi Hall
during the world-wide broadcasted show, Christmas In The Vatican. In
2000 Makeba released the grammy-nominated Homeland, her first studio
album in a decade. In 2002 she shared the Polar Music Prize with
Sofia Gubaidulina, in recognition of her exceptional achievements in
the creation and advancement of music.
After her return to South Africa Miriam Makeba recorded over ten
albums. In 2004, at the age of 72, she relased Reflections honoring
the tenth anniversary of the end of apartheid in South Africa. In
that same year Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South
Africans. She also started a 14 month worldwide farwell tour in
2005, holding concerts in all countries she had visited during her
life.
With an impressive career spanning more than four decades Miriam
Makeba is, indeed, one of the most respected, loved and cherished
treasures in (South) Africa.
On the early morning of 10th of November 2008 she died at the age of
76 after being taken ill near the southern Italian town of Caserta,
after performing at a concert against organized crime.
Source: Miriam Makeba, A true South African musical Legend |
