Homage to Miriam Makeba

by Daniel Brown

Article published on the 2008-11-13 Latest update 2008-11-16 08:45 TU

Mos Def
(Photo: D Brown)

On the 9 November Africa lost one of the continent’s most distinguished cultural figures. The South African singer Miriam Makeba was a devoted humanist who became the first black African woman to win a Grammy award. World Tracks pays homage to a musician whose life transgressed borders and generations. This includes an exclusive exchange with American rapper Mos Def.

Zenzile Miriam Makeba was universally known as Mama Africa. Her struggle against apartheid brought her admiration and support from generations of artists and politicians.

But behind the fairytale success story in music, lies an equally epic tragedy of injustice, death, exile, sickness, and divorce. The 76-year old Xhosa singer fought off breast cancer at 17, separated from five husbands, was forced into a 30-year exile, was blacklisted from the US music industry for her marriage to Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael and, tragically, lost her daughter Bongi.

On 9 November 2008 she died in Castel Voltumo, near Caserta, Italy. She had been taking part in a concert organised to support Italian writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra mafia operating in the Campania region.

Makeba died in a way that, as she told RFI ten years ago, she always dreamt of going: onstage in a foreign country, for a cause she believed in, singing her favourite songs to an audience that transcended the language and cultural barriers, and reached into the soul of Makeba’s South African music.

To better gauge her influence, I went to a hip-hop concert in La Bellevilloise. This multi-floored restaurant and cultural centre in northern Paris was founded in 1877 to help the poor gain access to education and popular culture. It was the fitting location to look for opinions on Makeba from artists touched by the South African icon.

World Tracks talks exclusively to controversial rapper Mos Def, young Stacy Epps and other participants in an all-night music joust based on generosity and cross-border exchanges.