Miriam Makeba, Mama Africa – Africa’s Music Legend has died | Chocolate City: The Best African American Blog

Miriam Makeba, Mama Africa – Africa’s Music Legend has died

by: Tolbert Yarkpawolo

Miriam Makeba, "Mama Africa"

African musical legend Miriam Makeba, 76-year-old, has died after being ill in Italy.

The Pineta Grande clinic in Castel Volturno, near the southern city of Naples, said Makeba died early Monday of a heart attack.

Makeba collapsed on stage Sunday night after singing one of her most famous hits, "Pata Pata," her family said in a statement. Her grandson, Nelson Lumumba Lee, was with her as well as her longtime friend, Italian promoter Roberto Meglioli.

Makeba, known as "Mama Africa" spent more than 30 years in exile after lending her support to the anti-apartheid struggle. Makeba appeared on Paul Simon’s Graceland tour in 1987 and in 1992 had a leading role in the film Sarafina!

Makeba, was born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932. She was a leading force in the struggle against South Africa’s racist apartheid system. Her singing career started in the 1950s as she mixed jazz with traditional South African songs.

She came to international attention in 1959 during a tour of the United States with South African group the Manhattan Brothers.

She was forced into exile soon after when her passport was revoked after starring in an anti-apartheid documentary and did not return to her native country until after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990.

Makeba was the first black African woman to win a Grammy Award, which

Dizzy Gillespie and Miriam Makeba

she shared with Harry Belafonte in 1965. Charlie Gillett, who presents the BBC World of Music programme, says 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 blending different styles long before the phrase "world music" was coined. "You sing about those things that surround you," she said. "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."

In England, Makeba also met West-Indian born singer Harry Belafonte, who offered to act as her mentor in the U.S. Due to her close relationship with Belafonte, she received star status in the United States and performed for President Kennedy at his birthday party in 1962.

The U.S. music industry punished Makeba for her political beliefs and her marriage to black power activist Stokely Carmichael who she married immediately after divorcing fellow South African musician Hugh Masekela.

In 1968 she married American civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure), who served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and prime minister of the Black Panther . The popular Azanian (South African) singer-musician-activist and her new husband weary of the constant U.S and South African governments surveillance and harassment moved to Guinea to live, study and fight for African liberation.

On November 15, 1998 Kwame Toure died in Conakry, Guinea after battling prostate cancer. It was his wish to die in his beloved Africa working for Black Power and the African people.

Makeba announced her retirement three years ago, but despite a series of farewell concerts she never stopped performing. When she turned 75 last year, she said she would sing for as long as possible.

Makeba is survived by her grandchildren, Nelson Lumumba Lee and Zenzi Monique Lee, and her great-grandchildren Lindelani, Ayanda and Kwame.

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Makeba sing’s "Soweto Blue"