28/03/2021
𝗠𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗺 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗯𝗮 (Zenzile Miriam Makeba: March 4, 1932 – Nov 9, 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist known for becoming the first African artist to globally popularize African music. She is best known for the song "Pata Pata", first recorded in 1957 and released in the U.S. in 1967. Along with Belafonte she received a Grammy Award for her 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba.
While traveling to London she met Harry Belafonte who helped her gain entry into the US as well as fame there. She recorded and toured with many popular artists, such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela. Makeba campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. The South African government responded by revoking her passport in 1960 and her citizenship and right of return in 1963.
After apartheid was disbanded in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa after 30 years. She continued recording and performing, including a 1991 album with Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, and appeared in the 1992 film Sarafina!.
She was a strong supporter of human rights and continued her activism to her last breath. Makeba died of a heart attack on 9 November 2008 after performing in a concert in Italy organised to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the region of Campania.
Upon her death, former South African President Nelson Mandela said that "her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
South African singer Miriam Makeba on stage in a Johannesburg nightclub, 1955. Photo © Jürgen Schadeberg.