On 09 November 2008, singer, songwriter, actress, and activist, Zenzile Miriam Makeba, died of a heart attack during a concert in Italy. She was 76 years old.
Born in 1932 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Makeba was one of the most visible and outspoken critics of South Africa’s racist apartheid regime from its inception in the 1960s until its dismantling in the early 1990s.
Makeba’s career flourished when she moved to the United States as a young woman, and received a Grammy Award along with American musician Harry Belafonte for their 1965 album, ‘An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba’. Makeba, nicknamed ‘Mama Africa’, was among the first African musicians to receive worldwide recognition. She brought African music to a Western audience, and criticized her country’s apartheid regime in many of her most popular songs.
While attempting to travel home for her mother’s funeral in 1960, Makeba was banned from entering South Africa by the country’s government. In 1963, her testimony against the South African government at the United Nations resulted in the government banning her music and revoking her citizenship.
After apartheid was dismantled in 1990, Makeba returned to South Africa.
📝: Wemimo Ogunmoyela
📷: 1) Miriam Makeba. Unknown
