Mama Afrika has sung her last
Monday 10 November 2008 at 11:05 UTC
Miriam Makeba at the Cape Town Jazz Festival in 2006 (photo: Mark Oppenheimer)
Sad news – the South African singing great Miriam Makeba has died aged 76, following a benefit concert in southern Italy for the anti-mafia journalist and campaigner Roberto Saviano.
Makeba’s professional life was long and illustrious. I first heard her music in the 1980s, involved as I was then in left politics that included the anti-apartheid movement. It was through artists such as Makeba that many Europeans and Americans first came to experience modern African culture. The music and visual arts of the continent had a depth and soul that struck an immediate chord with young people in the west, and they went on to profoundly influence our own cultural development.
Farewell, Miriam!
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Monday 10 November 2008 at 14:34 UTC
True. I’m a fan of her 1950s Ella-style jazz recordings too.
Monday 10 November 2008 at 14:41 UTC
Me too, though I have a love-hate relationship with jazz (“Nice!”), and only discovered those early recordings much later.
Monday 10 November 2008 at 20:10 UTC
It was through artists such as Makeba that many Europeans and Americans first came to experience modern African culture… Indeed, indeed. I’m out of touch with all things African, but I hope she’ll be given a fine send off.
Sunday 16 November 2008 at 19:21 UTC
[...] cultural heroes are dropping like flies. The past week has seen the deaths of Miriam Makeba and Mitch Mitchell, and now we’ve lost Reg Varney, the great comic actor and star of the [...]