Kampala — SHELTON Mazowe, a Zimbabwean musician often met Miriam Makeba in the early days of her career. He reminisces about their friendship.
Miriam Makeba's South African band, The Manhattan Brothers, was on tour in Northern Rhodesia, the present-day Zambia. Our band, the Hot Trio Brothers Band from Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) was also touring the same country. This was in 1952.
That was when I first met Miriam Makeba in person. Otherwise I had heard a lot about her and her music. She was a very high-class African performing star. I knew her through Dorothy Masuka, one of the best singers at the time.
She was my fellow Southern Rhodesian. At the time, the most loved bands were The Mills Brothers and the Golden Gate Quartet, both from America. But the most popular band in the Southern African region was the Manhattan Brothers.
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I met Makeba and her band in the township of Mufulira. After the concert, I went back stage to talk to members of the band, including her, and congratulate them upon their performance. I introduced myself as Shelton Mazowe, a musician with the Hot Trio Brothers. They told me they had heard about us but had not seen our show. That was 1952.
We left northern Rhodesia and went to Belgian Congo (present day Democratic Republic of Congo). Here, we again met with Makeba's band in early 1953. On both occasions, she was a very composed young lady, and she gave me the impression she was one day going to be one of the best entertainers to emerge from Africa. My third meeting with Miriam was in the 1970s during Idi Amin's regime.
I was on my way to my bar, Kasisira Bar and Restaurant at Crested Towers (the present Blue Africa Restaurant and Bar), when I heard that she was at the Nile Hotel. I went to see her, and in turn, she came to see my restaurant. She told me it was beautiful. We talked about music and our first encounter in Rhodesia and then Congo. We had become like brothers and sisters.
That day, I attended her concert and she was even much better now. She had gone solo. After the concert, she called me and told me: "brother, I want you to prepare me local food. I am tired of foreign food. From that time until she left, I personally prepared her meals. I was staying along Clement Hill Road in Nakasero, which was near by.
It was mostly posho and chicken prepared the Zimbabwean way. Makeba was staying at the Nile Hotel with her second husband, Stokely Carmichael, a black American politician.
Her first husband was Hugh Masekela, one of Africa's best trumpeters. One day, she was invited by the then Zairean ambassador to Uganda to his residence in Nakasero. About twelve black-American business men were also invited. I, too, was invited with my wife. It was a buffet.
In her welcoming remarks before the meal, the ambassador's wife rose up and said; "Ladies and gentlemen, what is in the middle of the buffet table, in the silver dish is a special delicacy." In unison, we asked her what the delicacy was, and she said it was called "ekunzeni." "If president Mobutu has not eaten it for a day, it is like he has not eaten at all," she added. Every one was anxious to know what the delicacy was.
I asked one Congolese gentleman what ekunzeni was, and he told me it was monkey meat. I told my wife what the special delicacy was, and together, we shunned it. We were the only people that did not eat it. The rest, including Miriam and her husband ate the monkey meat.
The black Americans even went for more portions. I suspect she was already used to it. After the meal, Miriam's husband stood up and said: "My brother-in-law, Mr Sheldon has not eaten this, and this is very nice food. This thing only eats fruits from trees. It is not like pigs or chicken which eat anything they come across." This caused laughter.
I had to shoot back. I assured him that eating habits are different. I told him I had not eaten it and would never eat it. Makeba was in Uganda for roughly two weeks. By this time she was staying in Guinea.
Miriam came back to Uganda two or three years later. She had been invited for a fund raising concert in Kampala. That was the last time I ever saw her. She called me up and I went to see her at the Nile Hotel. She just wanted to see me and talk about liberation and apartheid because both South Africa and Zimbabwe were not yet independent. In my opinion, Miriam was a fighter through music.
She fought the whites through song, and whatever she talked on stage was about South Africa's liberation. She was a born politician. She loved Uganda so much, mainly because it was a free country. She once told me; "Look, Sheldon, here all races mix freely. Back home, these people segregate us. Why is this? We have got to fight this."
When she came to Kampala for the Warid International Jazz Festival last month, I did not meet her. I was very sick. I'm sure she looked for me but failed to locate me. I only saw her pictures in the newspapers. She was so old. She was limping, and had put on weight. I was worried for her health.
Among her songs, I loved The click song most. It was an anti-apartheid song. In it, she was saying that no white person could click the song's meaning. In all, I loved all her songs. She was exceptionally good, and her death is a big loss to Africa and the world.
I came to Uganda in 1956 with the Hot Trio Brothers Band. Our coming to Uganda was accidental. We were winding up our Kenya tour, when the then head of Uganda Police brass band, Ahmed Oduka came to our show. He came back stage and asked if we were coming to Uganda. We told him it wasn't in our plans.
We exchanged contacts. Oduka kept saying we would make more money if we staged such a show in Kampala, and kept convincing us to give it a try. We eventually came to Kampala by train. He personally picked us from the railway station, and got us accommodation that we would later rent.
Our very first show was at Top Life Bar in Mengo, next to Bulange. We have since stayed here. I have produced eleven children with a Ugandan woman, and have many grand children. I have only been to Zimbabwe once, in 1980, when the country got independence. I am 74 years old, two younger than Miriam. I am a retired musician and I live in Nansana.
Up to now, I am in shock at Miriam's death because we were like brother and sister. I had loved to at least bury her, but it was not possible.
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