Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba ( born March 4, 1932 in Prospect Township, near Johannesburg, South Africa, † November 10, 2008 in Castel Volturno, Italy; Complete name Zenzile Makeba Qgwashu Nguvama Yiketheli Nxgowa Bantana Balomzi Xa UFUN Ubajabulisa Ubaphekeli Mbiza Yotshwala Sithi Xa Saku Qgiba Ukutja Sithathe Izitsha Sizi Khabe Singama Lawu Singama Qgwashu Singama Nqamla Nqgithi, also known as Mama Africa) was a South African singer and a representative of world music. She struggled since their exile in 1960 against the then apartheid policies of South Africa and fought for human rights.

Life

Miriam Makeba was the child of a domestic help and a teacher to the world. She married in 1949 and brought Gooli Kubay 1950 her only daughter Bongi Makeba to the world. The following year, the couple divorced. Miriam Makeba as her mother worked as a maid. Her musical career began as a singer Miriam Makeba groups of Cuban Brothers and Manhattan Brothers. Later she founded the female trio The Skylarks.

In 1959 she married the Indian Sonny Pillay. In the same year she was the lead actress in the hit musical King Kong. After they had caught in the same year for her performance in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa sensation, she returned immediately to their home, after which they refused to give the return journey. Then you helped Harry Belafonte at the entry to the U.S. and at first appearances in Los Angeles and New York. Thus began her international career. Makeba's largest international musical success was the song written in isiXhosa Pata Pata (1967). This song made ​​it into the U.S. charts and at # 14 in the West German singles chart. Her other well-known songs include The Click Song, Soweto Blues, as well as a version of Mbube ( The Lion Sleeps Tonight), which she sang, among others, on the celebration of the 45th anniversary of John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962. In 1963, she spoke for the first time before the UN and demanded the boycott of South African apartheid regime. From 1964 to 1966 she was married to the South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela. In 1968 she married the civil rights activist and Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. They were then monitored by the FBI, so they emigrated to Guinea. There they soon became good friends of President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife. In the fall of 1974 she performed with James Brown, BB King, The Spinners and The Crusaders on a major concert in Africa. It was part of the Framework Programme organized by Don King historic boxing match Rumble in the Jungle (English: "The fight in the jungle " ) between the then Heavyweight champion George Foreman and former world champion Muhammad Ali, on 30 October 1974 in Kinshasa (Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo) took place.

In 1978 the marriage of Makeba and Carmichael was divorced. Miriam Makeba was then second wife of Bageot Bah, a Belgian Muslim who is an employee of an airline was. Miriam Makeba's daughter Bongi Makeba Miriam Makeba died sang a duet with Paul Simon on his concert in 1985. 1986. In 1987, she accompanied him on his Graceland tour. In 1988, she met with Hugh Masekela at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in London. After three decades of exile in the United States and Guinea, she returned in 1990, at the request of Nelson Mandela, South Africa and lived again in Johannesburg. In 1992, she starred opposite Whoopi Goldberg in the film adaptation of the musical Sarafina! to see. On 26 September 2005 Miriam Makeba announced her farewell to the stage. One last world tour, she still led by the U.S., Cuba, Brazil, Venezuela, Scandinavia and Germany. On 25 May 2006 Miriam Makeba was on the 18th Africa Festival in Würzburg their last concert in Germany.

November 9, 2008 Miriam Makeba performed at a benefit concert for the risk of the Camorra writer and journalist Roberto Saviano in Castel Volturno in Italy. Shortly after her appearance, she suffered a heart attack and died in the early morning of November 10 in the hospital.

Honors

• Grammy Award
• Dag Hammarskjöld Prize
• Kora All African Music Award for Lifetime Achievement (1996 )
• Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold (2001)
• Polar Music Prize ( unofficial " Nobel Prize for Music ", 2002)

Discography

Solo albums

• Miriam Makeba, 1960
• The World of Miriam Makeba, 1962
• Makeba, 1963
• The Voice of Africa, 1964
• Makeba Sings, 1965
• An Evening With Belafonte / Makeba ( with Harry Belafonte ), 1965
• The Click Song, 1965
• All About Makeba, 1966
• Malaisha, 1966
• Pata Pata, 1967
• Keep Me In Mind, 1970

• A Promise, 1974
• Country Girl, 1975
• Comme une symphonie d' amour, 1979
• Sangoma, 1988
• Welela, 1989
• Eyes on Tomorrow, 1991
• Sing Me a Song, 1993
• Live From Paris & Conakry, 1998 (1974/1977)
• Homeland, 2000

• Reflections, 2003
• Forever, 2006

Compilations ( selection)

• Africa 1960-65 recordings, 1991
• The Best Of Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks 1956-59 recordings, 1998
• Mama Africa: The Very Best of Miriam Makeba, 2000
• The Guinea Years, 2001
• The Definitive Collection, 2002
• The Best of the Early Years, 2003

Filmography

• Come Back, Africa. Movies, South Africa, USA, 1959, Book: Bloke Modisane, Lewis Nkosi, Lionel Rogosin, directed by Lionel Rogosin
• Sarafina! Music film, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, 1992 117 min Directed by: Darrell Roodt, including Whoopi Goldberg; the film is about the youth uprising in Soweto in 1976, Makeba represents the mother of a teenager
• When We Were Kings. Documentary, directed by Leon Gast, concerns the autumn 1974 in Kinshasa in Zaire Rumble in the Jungle boxing match organized and contains concert footage of Miriam Makeba. When We Were Kings won the 1997 Oscar for Best Documentary.
• Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony. Documentation, South Africa, 2002, 108 min Directed by: Lee Hirsch
• Mama Africa. Documentary, Germany, South Africa, Finland, 2011, 91 min Director: Mika Kaurismäki

Biography

1987 wrote Miriam Makeba together with the white Americans James Hall the book Makeba. My Story. In 1988 the German translation Homeland Blues. A colorful life. the Goldmann Verlag. (ISBN 3-442-30060-6 )