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Miriam Makeba

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Miriam Makeba
Cape Town Jazz Festival in 2006.
Cape Town Jazz Festival in 2006.
Background information
Birth name Zenzile Miriam Makeba[1]
Also known as Mama Afrika
Born 4 March 1932(1932-03-04)
Prospect Township, Johannesburg, South Africa
Died 10 November 2008 (aged 76)
Castel Volturno, Italy
Occupation(s) Singer
Years active 1954-2008
Label(s) Manteca, RCA, Mercury Records, Kapp Records, Collectables, Suave Music, Warner Bros., PolyGram, Drg, Stern's Africa, Kaz, Sonodisc
Website Official Website

Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 - 10 November 2008)[2] was a South African singer and civil rights activist. The Grammy Award winning artist is often referred to as Mama Afrika.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in Johannesburg in 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma and her father, who died when she was six, was a Xhosa. As a child, she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, which she attended for eight years.

Makeba first toured with an amateur group. 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 United States. Her break came when she had a short guest appearance in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959 by independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin. The short cameo made an enormous impression on the viewers and Lionel Rogosin managed to organise a visa for her to leave South Africa and to attend the premiere of the film at the Venice Film Festival.

[edit] Exile

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

She discovered that her South African passport was revoked when she tried to return there in 1960 for her mother's funeral. In 1963, after testifying against apartheid before the United Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country were revoked. She has had nine passports, [3] and was granted honorary citizenship of ten countries.[4]

Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife.[5] Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She was one of the African and Afro-American entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre. Makeba 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. Shortly thereafter she published her autobiography Makeba: My Story (ISBN 0-453-00561-6).

[edit] Return to South Africa

Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990. In November 1991, she made a guest appearance in an episode of The Cosby Show, in the episode "Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet". In 1992 she starred in the film Sarafina!, about the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, as the title character's mother, "Angelina." 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 January 2000, her album, Homeland, produced by Cedric Samson and Michael Levinsohn[6] was nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music" category[7]. 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 worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life. [4]

Her publicist notes that Makeba had suffered "severe arthritis" for some time.[8]

[edit] Death

On 9 November 2008, she became ill while taking part in a concert organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the Region of Campania. The concert was being held in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy. Makeba suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata"[9], and was taken to the "Pineta Grande" clinic where doctors were unable to revive her.[10][11][12][9]

Several reports gave her cause of death as cardiac arrest, apparently quoting a death certificate signed by a licensed physician: most physicians regard cardiac arrest a symptom of death, rather than a cause. In Makeba's case, the cause would be a myocardial infarction (heart attack).[citation needed]

[edit] Discography

Miriam Makeba and Dizzy Gillespie in concert (1991).

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Compilations

  • The Queen Of African Music - 17 Great Songs, 1987
  • Africa 1960-65 recordings, 1991
  • Eyes On Tomorrow, 1991
  • The Best Of Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks: 1956 - 1959 recordings, 1998
  • Mama Africa: The Very Best Of Miriam Makeba, 2000
  • The Guinea Years, 2001
  • The Definitive Collection, 2002
  • The Best Of The Early Years, 2003

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Miriam Makeba official website
  2. ^ Some sources (e.g. [1]) give 9 November as her date of death, however her official website gives 10 November
  3. ^ Nkrumah, Gamal (17 November 2001). "Sing it loud, sing it strong". Al-Ahram Weekly. http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/558/profile.htm. Retrieved on 2008-09-11. 
  4. ^ a b "Robin Denselow talks to African superstar and activist Miriam Makeba". The Guardian. 16 May 2008. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2280144,00.html. Retrieved on 2008-09-11. 
  5. ^ Miriam Makeba obituary Nov 13th 2008, The Economist
  6. ^ Makeba Returns With homeland': Putumayo Set Deals With Pain Of Exile, Joy Of Homecoming | Entertainment & Arts > Music Industry from AllBusiness.com
  7. ^ 43rd Annual Grammy Awards Nominations Coverage at Digital Hit Entertainment (2001)
  8. ^ "South African singer Miriam Makeba dies in Italy". Reuters. 10 November 2008. http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE4A912L20081110. Retrieved on 2008-11-10. 
  9. ^ a b "Miriam Makeba, Singer and Activist, Dies at 76". Associated Press. 10 November 2008. http://www.legacy.com/NYTimes/DeathNotices.asp?page=lifestory&personid=120022310. Retrieved on 2009-03-28. 
  10. ^ "Miriam Makeba muore dopo concerto a Castel Volturno". Reuter Italia. 10 November 2008. http://www.borsaitaliana.reuters.it/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2008-11-10T101901Z_01_MIE4A900H_RTROPTT_0_OITTP-MAKEBA-CASERTA.XML. Retrieved on 2008-11-10. 
  11. ^ "Singer Miriam Makeba dies aged 76". BBC News. 10 November 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7719056.stm. Retrieved on 2008-11-10. 
  12. ^ "South African singer Miriam Makeba dies in Italy". Agence France-Presse. 10 November 2008. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jqkPEaEhnS8oRnbGqmeD2I_Miisg. Retrieved on 2008-11-10. 

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

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