Mama Africa Dies

By Metro FM , 10 Nov 2008

Miriam Makeba has died at 76. Affectionately known as Mama Africa, the legendary singer had been on tour in Italy.

Makeba had just finished performing in a half an hour session for the young author of “Gomorrah” at Castel Volturno near Naples in a southern Italian town, Caserta. She took ill and was rushed to hospital but suffered a heart attack and passed away during the night.

“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,”
- Miriam Makeba

Makeba was a symbol of the fight against apartheid, born from a Swazi mother and Xhosa father in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932. She first earned international recognition as the vocalist of South African group, The Manhattan Brothers, while they toured the United States in 1959. Returning home the following year to bury her mother, she found her citizenship had been revoked by the government who later also banned her music. As a result she spent 31 years in exile, living in the United States and later in Guinea.

Mama Africa was the first black African woman to receive a Grammy Award, which she shared with folk singer Harry Belafonte in 1965. In 1967 she recorded the all-time hit “Pata Pata” (Xhosa for “touch, touch” describing a township dance) although she unknowingly signed away all royalties on the song.

After her beloved and only daughter, Bongi, died from complications with a miscarriage in 1985, she hit an all-time low. Makeba not only lost her child but lost parents at a young age and survived cancer. She returned to South Africa in the 1990s after Mandela was released from prison but it took a cash-strapped Makeba six years to find someone in the local recording industry to produce a record with her, resulting in the release of “Homeland”.

“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,” she said in her biography. We’re wishing the great Miriam Makeba a safe passage to wherever her spirit takes her.

Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata

Originally published on the Metro FM websites