She will be remembered for having vowed to "continue singing and never retire."
When she turned 75 last year, she said she would sing for as long as possible. Makeba, artistically, referred to as "Mama Africa," died at 76, in the southern Italian town of Caserta after a concert, Sunday, November 9 in Castel Volturno.
Italian news agency, ANSA, announced that Makeba died in the Pineta Grande clinic, where she was taken after she suffered a heart failure, following her performance at an anti-racism and anti-organised crime concert.
She was singing with and in support of Roberto Saviano, an Italian journalist and writer threatened with death by the Mafia, for haven written a book about organised crime in southern Italy, titled; "Gomorra."
"Mama Africa" was an inspiration to many worldwide and a legendary voice of Africa. Her illustrious lifestyle ranged from earning the fame "Mama Africa", being a symbol of fighting apartheid in her home country, South Africa, through song and dance. However, the South African icon also weathered many storms.
Her ups and downs in social life marked a rich career that associated her to many other leading veteran entertainers like South African Hugh Masekela and Harry Belafonte.
Makeba's death has brought to a halt an action-packed music career that has spanned over four decades.
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Her singing career started in the 1950s, as she mixed jazz with traditional South African songs. She came to international spotlight in 1959 during a tour of the United States, with South African musical band, The Manhattan Brothers.
Makeba was forced into exile soon after when her passport was revoked for featuring in an anti-apartheid documentary and did not return to her native country until after Nelson Madiba Mandela was released from prison on February 11 1990.
"Mama Africa was the first black African woman to win a Grammy Award, which she shared with Harry Belafonte in 1965.According to Charlie Gillett of the BBC World Service, who presents World of Music, "there is nobody to compare to her, as she was popular in West Africa, after living in exile in Guinea and East Africa for recording a version of the Swahili song Malaika, as well as her home in South Africa."
She was African music's first world star, fusing different styles long before the phrase "world music" was coined.After her divorce from fellow South African musician, Hugh Masekela, her second husband, she married American civil rights activist and member of the American Black Panther, Stokely Carmicheal and they relocated to Guinea. Makeba's first spouse was a South African policeman.
While living in exile in the US, Makeba released her most famous songs; Pata Pata and the Click Song. "You sing about those things that surround you. Our surrounding has always been that of suffering from Apartheid and the racism that exists in our country. So, our music has to be affected by all that," Makeba commented.
Her US Sojourn
Makeba became a massive hit in the US. People packed her concerts and she performed with stars. Her blend of African rhythms and jazz in songs like Pata Pata appealed to both conventional audiences and the trendy jazz crowd.
1962, she played at the US President John F. Kennedy's legendary birthday party, where Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday.Frightened by her international success, the South African government will hit hard on "Mama Africa" in her role in "Come Back, Africa," an anti-apartheid drama-documentary.
1960, she found out that the Apartheid government in South Africa would not let her home to attend her mother's funeral. "The man at the desk took my passport. He did not speak to me. He took a rubber stamp and slammed it down. Then he walked away. I picked up my passport. It was stamped 'Invalid'. 'They have done it' I told myself. They have exiled me," Makeba said in 2001.
She was shocked by the racial tensions she found in the 1960s America and described it; "Apartheid by another name."Harry Belafonte advised her to play a less confrontational role in the civil rights movement. It was a good advice when I found myself speaking at the UN Committee Against Apartheid and then the UN General Assembly. Belafonte told me; "You have such great talent, you must try not to be a tornado, be like a submarine." But her relationship with racial firebrand Stokely Carmicheal ended her career in the US.
Another Exile
Makeba became a symbol of the fight against Apartheid in her home country. She moved to Guinea and was given a home by President Sekou Toure, who paid her a salary to write and perform.
She also worked as UN representative for Guinea for many years, for which she was given the Dag Hammarskjold peace prize in 1986.By then, stricken by grief at the death of her only child, Bongi, in 1985, she left Guinea for Brussels, Belgium. Her relationship with Carmicheal also ended in 1973.
Makeba will be particularly remembered for having won recognition from Kenya's first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, when she composed Pole Mzee, dedicated to the Kenyan independence struggle.
Notably, she was amongst the foreign artistes to have had the opportunity of performing in Kenya during the Independence Day celebrations.Many Cameroonians still remember with relish, Makeba's 1975 stopover in Yaounde. During her sojourn, she addressed the then students of the Advanced School of Mass Communication, ASMAC, known then in the French accronym as ESSIJY, with French man, Herves Bourges as the Director.
Background
Miriam Nzanzi Makeba was born on March 4 1932 from a Xhosa father, a "sangoma" or traditional healer and a Swazi mother. Her father died when she was six.Makeba captured international attention as vocalist for the South African group, The Manhattan Brothers, while they toured the US in 1959.
1960, when she wanted to return home to bury her mother, the Apartheid government revoked her citizenship and subsequently banned her music, despite saying many times her songs were not political. She paid a high price for her activism. Hence, she spent 31 years in exile, living in the US and later in Guinea-Conakry.
1967, Makeba's fame sky-rocketed, with the recording of the all-time hit Pata Pata, meaning "touch-touch" in Xhosa, which describes a township dance. She will later, unknowingly signed away all royalties on the song.
She returned to South Africa in the 1990s after Mandela was released from prison but it took a cash-strapped Makeba six years to find someone in the local recording industry to produce a record with her.
She since released "Homeland", which contains a song describing her joy to be back home after the many years in exile in which she spoke out against apartheid and testified twice before the UN.
"I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music, I became this voice and image of Africa and the people, without realising," she noted in her biography.
1963, Makeba appeared before the UN Special Committee on Apartheid, to call for an international boycott of South Africa. The South African government responded by banning her records, including Pata Pata and Click Song.
She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland tour in 1987 in Zimbabwe.Despite a series of farewell concerts, Makeba never stopped performing. Her numerous fans will not allow go on retirement, though she made an announcement to that effect three years ago. 2005, she made an international farewell tour.
Her career was also blighted by poor financial management, which meant she had to keep performing no matter what else was happening in her life. She could not cancel concerts in 1989 and so missed her husband's funeral in Guinea because of singing commitments. "One minute I'm dinning with Presidents and emperors, the next I'm hitch-hiking," she told an interviewer in 2000.
1992, she had a leading role in the film Sarafina. She played "Angelina", the mother to Sarafina. This movie by Mbongeni Ngema, depicting South African students involved in Soweto riots, also featured Leleti Khumalo and Whoopi Goldberg.
Mourning Makeba, Mandela said; "She was the mother of our struggle and South Africa's first lady of song. Her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
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