99 Facts About Miriam Makeba

Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist.

Miriam Makeba had a brief and allegedly abusive first marriage at the age of 17, gave birth to her only child in 1950, and survived breast cancer.

Miriam Makeba's vocal talent had been recognized when she was a child, and she began singing professionally in the 1950s, with the Cuban Brothers, the Manhattan Brothers, and an all-woman group, the Skylarks, performing a mixture of jazz, traditional African melodies, and Western popular music.

In 1959, Miriam Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City.

Miriam Makeba moved to New York City, where she became immediately popular, and recorded her first solo album in 1960.

Miriam Makeba's career flourished in the United States, and she released several albums and songs, her most popular being "Pata Pata".

Miriam Makeba testified against the South African government at the United Nations and became involved in the civil rights movement.

Miriam Makeba married Stokely Carmichael, a leader of the Black Panther Party, in 1968, and consequently lost support among white Americans.

Miriam Makeba's visa was revoked by the US government when she was traveling abroad, forcing her and Carmichael to relocate to Guinea.

Miriam Makeba continued to perform, mostly in African countries, including at several independence celebrations.

Miriam Makeba began to write and perform music more explicitly critical of apartheid; the 1977 song "Soweto Blues", written by her former husband Hugh Masekela, was about the Soweto uprising.

Miriam Makeba was named an FAO Goodwill Ambassador in 1999, and campaigned for humanitarian causes.

Miriam Makeba died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy.

Miriam Makeba was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition.

Miriam Makeba brought African music to a Western audience, and popularized the world music and Afropop genres.

Miriam Makeba made popular several songs critical of apartheid, and became a symbol of opposition to the system, particularly after her right to return was revoked.

Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born on 4 March 1932 in the black township of Prospect, near Johannesburg, as the only child of her father and the sixth of her mother.

Miriam Makeba's Xhosa father, Caswell Makeba, was a teacher; he died when she was six years old.

Miriam Makeba's Swazi mother, Christina Makeba, was a domestic worker; she had previously separated from her first husband and met and married Caswell shortly afterwards.

Miriam Makeba later said that before she was conceived, her mother had been warned that any future pregnancy could be fatal.

When Miriam Makeba was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested and sentenced to a six-month prison term for selling umqombothi, a homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal.

The family could not afford the small fine required to avoid a jail term, and Miriam Makeba spent the first six months of her life in jail.

Miriam Makeba was baptised a Protestant, and sang in church choirs, in English, Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu; she later said that she learned to sing in English before she could speak the language.

Miriam Makeba was influenced by her family's musical tastes; her mother played several traditional instruments, and her elder brother collected records, including those of Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, and taught Miriam Makeba songs.

Miriam Makeba's father played the piano and sang in a group called The Mississippi 12, and his musical inclination was later a factor in Makeba's family accepting what was seen as a risque choice of career.

Miriam Makeba left school to support her family and first worked as a live-in nanny for a Greek family in the Johannesberg suburb of Waverley for three months.

The mother stopped paying her and went to the police to accuse her of stealing, so Miriam Makeba fled back to her grandmother's home in Riverside.

Around that time Miriam Makeba's mother began the process of becoming a sangoma or traditional healer, which required her to go back to her ancestral homeland in Eswatini.

Miriam Makeba stayed behind working as a launderer for expatriate workers to support her family.

In 1949, Miriam Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Sibongile "Bongi" Miriam Makeba, in 1950.

Miriam Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband, who was said to have beaten her, left her shortly afterwards, after a two-year marriage.

Miriam Makeba began her professional musical career with the Cuban Brothers, a South African all-male close harmony group, with whom she sang covers of popular American songs.

Miriam Makeba sang with the Skylarks when the Manhattan Brothers were travelling abroad; later, she travelled with the Manhattan Brothers.

In 1957, Miriam Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine.

In 1959, Miriam Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela.

Rogosin cast her after seeing her on stage in African Jazz and Variety show, on which Miriam Makeba was a performer for 18 months.

Miriam Makeba appeared on stage, and sang two songs: her appearance lasted four minutes.

Miriam Makeba's presence has been described as crucial to the film, as an emblem of cosmopolitan black identity that connected with working-class black people due to the dialogue being in Zulu.

Miriam Makeba then moved to New York, making her US music debut on 1 November 1959 on The Steve Allen Show in Los Angeles for a television audience of 60 million.

Miriam Makeba first came to popular and critical attention in jazz clubs, after which her reputation grew rapidly.

When she first moved to the US, Miriam Makeba lived in Greenwich Village, along with other musicians and actors.

Miriam Makeba signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, and released Miriam Makeba, her first studio album, in 1960, backed by Belafonte's band.

The album was not commercially successful, and Miriam Makeba was briefly dropped from RCA Victor: she was re-signed soon after as the label recognised the commercial possibilities of the growing interest in African culture.

Miriam Makeba made several appearances on television, often in the company of Belafonte.

Miriam Makeba's music had a cross-racial appeal in the US; white Americans were attracted to her image as an "exotic" African performer, and black Americans related their own experiences of racial segregation to Miriam Makeba's struggle against apartheid.

Miriam Makeba found company among other African exiles and emigres in New York, including Hugh Masekela, to whom she was married from 1963 to 1968.

Miriam Makeba came to know actors Marlon Brando and Lauren Bacall, and musicians Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles.

Fellow singer-activist Nina Simone became friendly with Miriam Makeba, as did actor Cicely Tyson; Miriam Makeba and Simone performed together at Carnegie Hall.

Miriam Makeba's music was popular in Europe, and she travelled and performed there frequently.

Miriam Makeba visited Kenya in 1962 in support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta.

Miriam Makeba requested an arms embargo against South Africa, on the basis that weapons sold to the government would likely be used against black women and children.

Miriam Makeba thus became stateless, but she was issued passports by Algeria, Guinea, Belgium and Ghana.

Miriam Makeba participated in fundraising activities for various civil rights groups, including a benefit concert for the 1962 Southern Christian Leadership Conference that civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

Miriam Makeba criticised King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference for its investment in South African companies, informing press that "Now my friend of long standing supports the country's persecution of my people and I must find a new idol".

Miriam Makeba married Carmichael in March 1968; this caused her popularity in the US to decline markedly.

Miriam Makeba's performances were cancelled and her coverage in the press declined despite her efforts to portray her marriage as apolitical.

Miriam Makeba performed more frequently in African countries, and as countries became independent of European colonial powers, was invited to sing at independence ceremonies, including in Kenya, Angola, Zambia, Tanganyika, and Mozambique.

Miriam Makeba became a diplomat for Ghana, and was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the UN in 1975; that year, she addressed the United Nations General Assembly, where she advocated for South Africa's liberation from apartheid.

Miriam Makeba continued to perform in Europe and Asia, along with her African concerts, but not in the US, where a de facto boycott was in effect.

Miriam Makeba later stated that it was during this period that she accepted the label "Mama Africa": scholar Omotayo Jolaosho writes that the epithet, by which she came to be widely known, was first given her by her daughter Bongi in an interview.

Hugh Masekela wrote "Soweto Blues" in response to the massacre, and the song was performed by Miriam Makeba, becoming a staple of her live performances for many years.

Miriam Makeba had separated from Carmichael in 1973; in 1978 they divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive.

Miriam Makeba was left responsible for her two surviving grandchildren, and decided to move out of Guinea, which had become less hospitable to her after Toure's death the previous year and the military coup that followed.

Miriam Makeba settled in the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert district of the Belgian capital Brussels.

Miriam Makeba took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at London's Wembley Stadium, and broadcast to an audience of 600 million across 67 countries.

Miriam Makeba persuaded Makeba to try to return to South Africa; she obtained a six-day visa after months of effort, and entered South Africa using her French passport on 10 June 1990.

Miriam Makeba's arrival was a considerable event, featuring meetings, interviews, and singing by Brenda Fassie.

Miriam Makeba portrayed the title character's mother, Angelina, a role which The New York Times described as having been performed with "immense dignity".

On 16 October 1999, Miriam Makeba was named a Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Miriam Makeba established the Makeba Centre for Girls, a home for orphans, described in an obituary as her most personal project.

Makeba's second autobiography, Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story, was published in 2004.

On 9 November 2008, Miriam Makeba fell ill during a concert in Castel Volturno, near Caserta, Italy.

Miriam Makeba suffered a heart attack after singing her hit song "Pata Pata", and was taken to the Pineta Grande clinic, where doctors were unable to revive her.

The groups with which Miriam Makeba began her career performed mbube, a style of vocal harmony which drew on American jazz, ragtime, and Anglican church hymns, as well as indigenous styles of music.

Miriam Makeba has been associated with the genres of world music and Afropop.

Miriam Makeba incorporated Latin American musical styles into her performances.

Miriam Makeba was able to appeal to audiences from many political, racial, and national backgrounds.

Miriam Makeba was known for having a dynamic vocal range, and was described as having an emotional awareness during her performances.

Miriam Makeba occasionally danced during her shows, and was described as having a sensuous presence on stage.

Miriam Makeba could sing while making the epiglottal clicks of the Xhosa language.

Miriam Makeba said that she did not perform political music, but music about her personal life in South Africa, which included describing the pain she felt living under apartheid.

Miriam Makeba once stated "people say I sing politics, but what I sing is not politics, it is the truth", an example of the mixing of personal and political issues for musicians living during apartheid.

Miriam Makeba was described as a style icon, both in her home country and the US.

Miriam Makeba wore no makeup and refused to straighten her hair for shows, thus helping establish a style that came to be known internationally as the "Afro look".

Miriam Makeba was seen as a beauty icon by South African schoolgirls, who were compelled to shorten their hair by the apartheid government.

Miriam Makeba stuck to wearing African jewellery; she disapproved of the skin-lighteners commonly used by South African women at the time, and refused to appear in advertisements for them.

Miriam Makeba was among the most visible Africans in the US; as a result, she was often emblematic of the continent of Africa for Americans.

Jacobs said that Miriam Makeba's music had "both been shaped by and given shape to black South African and American music".

Outside her home country Miriam Makeba was credited with bringing African music to a Western audience.

Miriam Makeba is credited, along with artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Ali Farka Toure, Baaba Maal and Angelique Kidjo, with popularising the genre of world music.

Miriam Makeba disliked this label believing it marginalized music from the "third world".

Miriam Makeba was among the most visible people campaigning against the apartheid system in South Africa, and was responsible for popularising several anti-apartheid songs, including "Meadowlands" by Strike Vilakezi and "Ndodemnyama we Verwoerd" by Vuyisile Mini.

Many of her songs were banned within South Africa, leading to Miriam Makeba's records being distributed underground, and even her apolitical songs being seen as subversive.

Miriam Makeba thus became a symbol of resistance to the white-minority government both within and outside South Africa.

Miriam Makeba has been associated with the movement against colonialism, with the civil rights and black power movements in the US, and with the Pan-African movement.

Miriam Makeba shared the 2001 Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina.

Miriam Makeba won the Dag Hammarskjold Peace Prize in 1986, and in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding".

From 25 to 27 September 2009, a tribute television show to Makeba, entitled Hommage a Miriam Makeba and curated by Beninoise singer-songwriter and activist Angelique Kidjo, was held at the Cirque d'hiver in Paris.

Mama Africa, a musical about Miriam Makeba, was produced in South Africa by Niyi Coker.