Miriam Makeba

Singer

• Born: March 4, 1932
• Birthplace: Prospect, South Africa
• Died: October 11, 2008
• Place of death: Castel Volturno, Caserta Province, near Naples, Italy

South African singer and songwriter

Makeba introduced South African folk songs into the African jazz musical style that swept Europe and the United States in the 1950s, and her appearances spotlighted declining conditions for black South Africans during the years of apartheid.

The Life

Born to a Swazi mother and Xhosa father, Miriam Zenzi Makeba was eighteen days old when she was imprisoned with her mother, who was found guilty of brewing beer. South Africa’s apartheid government was established in 1948, and with the Group Areas Act, it separated housing for all South Africans based on race. Required relocation and separation of job opportunities based on race forced Makeba to leave school at the age of sixteen to work full time as a domestic servant.

Her first marriage resulted in the birth of a daughter, Bongi. In 1948 Makeba began singing in Johannesburg, and she was touring and performing full time throughout southern Africa by 1950. Performances in the United States, including an appearance on television’s The Steve Allen Show, helped make Makeba a star. Through her long-standing friendship with Harry Belafonte, she met Duke Ellington, Pearl Bailey, and other well-known jazz musicians and performers.

Makeba performed for and was received by leaders all over the world, among them Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Fidel Castro of Cuba, and John F. Kennedy of the United States. Makeba married two famous figures, South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela and, later, Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael. The latter association harmed her career in the United States, causing revocation of her U.S. residency permit in 1968. She relocated to the coastal African nation of Guinea as a guest of the Guinean president Ahmed Sékou Touré until his death in 1984. In Guinea she served as a U.N. diplomatic delegate, speaking against South African oppression of blacks. In 1987 she participated in Paul Simon’s Graceland tour, and she eventually returned to South Africa after thirty-one years in exile. She died on November 10, 2008, of an apparent heart attack after performing at a concert in Italy.

The Music

South Africa, 1948–1959. In 1948 Makeba began her South African singing career in a band called the Cuban Brothers. In 1950 she joined the African Jazz and Variety touring review as a member of the Manhattan Brothers, sponsored by Gallotone Records. The record company created an all-women singing group the Skylarks, and Makeba performed in the cast of the touring jazz opera King Kong (1959). Makeba earned recognition for her powerful voice with a repertoire that included folk songs in tribal languages, jazz standards, and original songs. While touring, Makeba was invited to perform in a 1959 documentary called Come Back, Africa, in which she sang two songs that would change her life forever.

Lives of professional black South African musicians during the apartheid era included dangerous travel and frequent incarceration because of the strict regulations on permits and on segregation in all activities. While traveling to Venice, Italy, to receive an award for the film, Makeba had her South African citizenship revoked, and she was exiled from 1959 until 1990. Her recordings were banned, rendering her music illegal inside South Africa.

United States, 1959–1968. Makeba’s recording career in the United States included more than twenty albums featuring her original music. She is most noted for the 1967 song and album entitled Pata Pata, which reflected the South African dance style of her youth, and the hit “The Click Song,” a wedding song that includes vocal clicks found in the Xhosa language.

As a star performer in Belafonte’s shows and as a successful recording artist for RCA, Reprise, and Mercury recording studios, Makeba embodied a new musical style known as African jazz. The music reflected Makeba’s early touring repertoire, and it was supported with powerful vocals and African instrumentalists. The release of An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba signaled the international integration of music and politics with an album that included in the liner notes strong language of support for the liberation of black South Africans. As Belafonte’s protégé, Makeba became the first African to receive a Grammy Award, for the album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba, in 1966.

Citizen of the World, 1968–1990. During her years in Guinea she earned the nickname Mama Africa, and in 1977 she performed at Festac, a festival of arts for black people from all over the world. She persuaded Stevie Wonder to accept his Grammy Award in Nigeria by satellite, again bringing national attention to the plight of black South Africans. Makeba continued performances and contacts with American musicians and activists. In Europe her concerts continued, and in 1988 she released Sangoma with Warner Bros. Records, which consisted entirely of Xhosa folk songs and which was dedicated to her mother’s role as a sangoma, a highly regarded African healer.

In 1987 Makeba toured with Simon, demonstrating her commitment to interracial unity and to her African heritage. In 1990 she was permitted to return to South Africa, and she collaborated musically with Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone, and Hugh Masekela.

South Africa, 1990. At home in South Africa, Makeba performed in the film version of the musical Sarafina! (1992). Shot in Soweto and Johannesburg, the film portrayed the student-driven Soweto Riots of 1976. She appeared in the film Amandla! (2003), highlighting the role of music and musicians in the struggle for South African social justice. Her career as a international performer continued until 2005, when she began farewell performances to formally end her role as a public figure.

Musical Legacy

Makeba’s music and her presence at international conferences helped to expose apartheid’s oppressive tactics. Her recordings brought the folk music of the Xhosa and other tribal cultures into the mainstream, and her integration of Western jazz and tribal folk music defined a new genre known as African jazz.

In a career that spanned six decades, Makeba continued to earn worldwide recognition for her international service as well as for her musical accomplishments. She won the Dag Hammarskjold Peace Prize in 1996, Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold in 2001, and she shared (with Sophia Gubaidulina) the Polar Music Prize in 2002. In 2004 she was voted number thirty-eight on the list of the Top 100 Great South Africans. In 2004 she was appointed South African President Thabo Mbeki’s Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations, she was awarded the Gold Class Commander of the Legion of Honor from French President Jacques Chirac. Makeba received many posthumous tributes and acknowledgements of influence. A documentary detailing her life, Mama Africa, was released in 2011.

Principal Recordings

albums:Miriam Makeba, 1960; The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba, 1962; The World of Miriam Makeba, 1963; The Voice of Africa, 1964; The Click Song, 1965; An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba, 1965 (with Harry Belafonte); Makeba Sings, 1965; All About Miriam, 1966; Comme une symphonie d’amour, 1966; The Magic of Makeba, 1966; The Magnificent Miriam Makeba, 1966; Pata Pata, 1967; Keep Me in Mind, 1970; Country Girl, 1975; Sangoma, 1988; Welela, 1989; A Promise, 1974; Eyes on Tomorrow, 1991; Sing Me a Song, 1994; Meet Me at the River, 1996; Country Girl, 1997; Folk Songs from Africa, 1997; Homeland, 2000; Sabelani, 2001; Reflections, 2004.

writings of interest:The World of African Song, 1972 (edited by Jonas Gwangwa and E. John Miller, Jr.); Makeba: My Story, 1987 (with James Hall).

Bibliography

Cooper, Carol. “The Sound of the City: The Road Leads Home.” The Village Voice 45.22 (2000): 135. Print.

Ewens, Graeme. "Miriam Makeba." Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 10 Nov. 2008. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

Harris, Craig. "Miriam Makeba: Biography." AllMusic. AllMusic, 2016. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

Johnson, Brett. “Mama Afrika.” Vibe 8.7 (2000). Print.

Makeba, Miriam. My Story. New York: New American Library, 1987. Print.

"Miriam Makeba." South African History Online. South African History Online, 9 Nov. 2015. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.

Williamson, Nigel. “Mama Said.” Folk Roots 22.1 (2000): 33–35. Print.