Miriam Makeba was an exquisite singer who was a big star in her native South Africa in the 1950’s. Things started going wrong for her in her homeland in 1959 with an appearance in the anti-apartheid film Come Back Africa, although this appearance lead to an invitation to the Venice Film Festival where she formed a Grammy-winning partnership with Harry Belafonte.
The Grammy was for the album An Evening With Belafonte and Makeba, released in 1963, attracting major attention for this incredible voice. This attention led her to use his new status to highlight the problems back home by speaking at the United Nations and seeking international condemnation for South Africa’s policy of apartheid. Exile from her homeland followed.
She was particularly renowned for her performances of songs such as what was known as the Click Song — named for a clicking sound in her native tongue — or "Qongoqothwane," and Pata Pata, meaning Touch Touch in Xhosa. Her style of singing was widely interpreted as a blend of black township rhythms, jazz and folk music.
In an interview in 2008, Miriam Makeba said: "I’m not a political singer. I don’t know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us."
Nelson Mandela has paid tribute to legendary singer describing her as "South Africa's first lady of song … She richly deserved the title of Mama Afrika".
"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," Mr Mandela said.
She only returned to her homeland with the crumbling of apartheid in the early 1990s.
"It was like a revival," she said. "My music having been banned for so long, that people still felt the same way about me was too much for me. I just went home and I cried."
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