AMINA DESIGN: MIRIAM MAKEBA. "She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours."

Miriam Makeba (4 March 1932 – 9 November 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist.
In the 1960s she was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music around the world. She is best known for the song "Pata Pata", first recorded in 1957 and released in the U.S. in 1967. She recorded and toured with many popular artists, such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela.
Makeba campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. The South African government responded by revoking her passport in 1960 and her citizenship and right of return in 1963.In 1963 she became the first black woman to speak at the United Nations, and was known thereafter as “Mama Africa”. Never giving up on her audience, she remained on stage until the very end, and died after giving a concert while on tour in Italy in 2008. As the apartheid system crumbled she returned home for the first time in 1990.
Makeba died of a heart attack on 9 November 2008 after performing in a concert in Italy organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the region of Campania.

Career
Makeba's 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 She was forced into exile soon after when her passport was revoked after starring in an anti-apartheid documentary and did not return to her native country until after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990. As MIMI writer Joké Babington-Ashaye, wrote in the article Rebel Artists And Politics: Beating The Drums Of War (originally published in March 2006):
In a league of her own, Makeba (the first black African woman to win a Grammy Award, which she shared with Harry Belafonte in 1965) is oftentimes cited as an inspiration to artists and civil rights leaders alike. As Nelson Mandela shared in a tribute to Makeba following her passing: "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and disclocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us. Even after she returned home she continued to use her name to make a difference by mentoring musicians and supporting struggling young women. One of her more recent projects was to highlight the plight of victims of land mines. She was South Africa's first lady of song and so richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika. She was a mother to our struggle and to the young nation of ours."
Film: ‘Mama Africa’ An Unforgettable Portrait Of Miriam Makeba

Short synopsis/presentation:
An unforgettable portrait of Miriam Makeba (1932-2008), the world-famous South African artist and civil right activist, who devoted her life to promoting peace and justice and fighting racism around the planet. A figurehead of the Black African movement in exile, her music and daily practice incarnated the hopes and fears of Africa through the convulsive 20^th century, so that she has come to be considered the voice and mother of the Continent.

Miriam Makeba appeared in Lionel Rogosin’s milestone neorealist and anti-apartheid film “Come Back, Africa” (1959, trailer below)

Makeba, a devoted woman, a unique singer and a mother of a continent, resonates today through her activism and art, through the musical accomplishments of her disciples and family members, especially those of her granddaughter, the superstar Benin Angelique Kidjo, who is one of the documentary’s most powerful and lucid voices.
Her staunchest fans may long for more appearances by Makeba onstage or more songs, but the filmmaker, by recurring to a handful of key songs, has managed skillfully to transmit her generous personality and dramatic life without lapsing into idolatry. The mandatory inclusion of “Pata Pata” does not preclude Makeba’s qualifying comment: “…with no meaning at all about a dance called pata pata. I would have preferred another song to be popular.” Bittersweet irony, a constant in the life of a woman, an artist, a continent.

Miriam Makeba: Award-winning South African singer's birthday Google Doodle