World-famous singer and social activist Miriam Makeba, affectionately known as Mama Afrika, would have turned 90 today, March 4 2022.
Born Zenzile Miriam Makeba, she grew up in Sophiatown, a segregated black township outside Johannesburg. Makeba started singing at Kilnerton College, a Methodist Church elementary school.
A founding member of the famous all-woman singing group the Skylarks, in 1952 she was cast in Alf Herbert’s African Jazz and Variety production that showcased black talent. The show was exclusive to white audiences except on Thursdays, when black people were allowed to view it.
Makeba’s short appearance on the documentary film Come Back, Africa in 1959 attracted the the attention of Harry Belafonte, the American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor.
That same year, Makeba settled in the US, where she took her singing and recording career a notch higher. She sang a variety of popular songs, but excelled in vernacular songs, to the delight of Western audiences.
She was known for songs that were perilous of apartheid, an institutionalised racial segregation system in South Africa at the time..
In 1960, Makeba was denied re-entry into South Africa, a move that banished her to exile, where she would spend the next 30 years living. In 1963, the apartheid government rescinded her passport. Her records were also banned.
Makeba married South African trumpeter and fellow Belafonte protégé Hugh Masekela in 1964, but the couple went separate ways two years later.
After his release from prison in 1990, South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela urged Makeba to come back home.
Makeba performed on South African soil for the first time upon her return in 1991. Although she was afflicted by health problems, she continued doing what she did best: singing.
The world-renowned singer died of a heart attack shortly after performing at a concert in Italy in 2008. At the time, Makeba had recorded 30 original albums. This was in addition to 19 compilation albums and appearances on the recordings of several other musicians.
Some of her unforgettable greatest hits included Pata Pata and Qongqothwane.
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