Posted
on March 4, 2015
She
turned the world onto African music.
She
campaigned against the bigotry of apartheid.
She
recorded and toured with popular musicians such as Harry Belafonte
and Paul Simon.
She
worked for civil rights.
Today's
birthday, Miriam Makeba, was born in South Africa on this date in
1932. She spent her first six months in jail, because her mom was
arrested for selling homemade beer when she was just 18 days old!
And
she spent much of the first half of her life in another sort of
prison – in the repressive, racially-segregated society called
apartheid.
Makeba
loved singing in a choir as a child, and as a young adult and breast
cancer survivor she began to sing with groups and eventually as a
solo artist.
But
she dared to speak out against apartheid in a documentary and in her
travels as she performed and accepted awards. As revenge, the South
Africans government cancelled her passport while she was out of the
country. She tried to go home for her mother's funeral and discovered
that she was in exile!
 |
| Makeba with Harry Belafonte |
Makeba
came to the United States. She performed on The Steve Allen
Show, signed with RCA, released
a few studio albums, and sang with Harry Belafonte at U.S. President
John F. Kennedy's birthday party—and then met the President!
She
also continued to campaign against apartheid. When she testified
against it before the U.N., her native country acted in revenge
AGAIN. This time, her citizenship and right to return were revoked.
 |
| Makeba with Paul Simon |
Was
she a woman without a country, then?
No!
Nine countries stepped up and issued her international passports, and
ten countries granted her honorary citizenship! In a way, Makeba had
MANY countries; in a way, she was a citizen of the world.
Makeba
won a Grammy Award in 1966. She was partly responsible for the
so-called “Afro” look of a natural, non-curled, non-straightened
hairstyle. Her song “Pata Pata” became a worldwide hit.
 |
|
Check
out Makeba's most famous song.
I
was sure I had never heard it, but it turns
out
it was totally familiar to me! I was all,
“Oh! THAT song!!” |
Unfortunately,
Makeba's connection to the U.S. was damaged when she married
Trinidad-born civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael. During the
time that she was not welcomed with open arms in the U.S., Makeba
served as Guinea's official delegate to the U.N., and she won the Dag
Hammarskjold Peace Prize.
In
the 1980s, though, she was back in the U.S. on a popular tour with
musician Paul Simon.
When
the system of apartheid crumbled in 1991, Makeba was finally able to
go home!
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