Miriam Makeba, also known as âMama Africaâ, is an African artist who used jazz (as well as South African Marabi) as black liberation music. She was arguably the most famous and politically active African musician of her time. While only 18 days in the world, she was sent to prison with her mother who was arrested for brewing a homemade beer to make extra money. From her earliest days, she was a victim of the apartheid state in South Africa. She had an affinity with music from a young age, which her mother instilled in her. She started in professional music as lead singer in her cousinâs group, called the Cuban Boys, who were amateurs, but was soon asked to join the already established Manhattan boys. The Manhattan Boys, namely Hugh Masekela (Makebaâs former husband), were deeply influenced by African American Jazz and its political nature.
      It was in Sophiatown, also known as âLittle Harlemâ, that the catalyst for Miriamâs international success was created. She was famous across the continent by the time Lionel Rogosin, an American film maker, approached her to sing in his movie after witnessing her perform in African Jazz & Variety. Come Back, Africa, was a dangerous venture for Makeba because of its nature as an anti-apartheid film. In spite of the risk she delivered an exceptional performance which earned her international critical acclaim and accompanied Rogosin (who smuggled the film out of the country) to its Venice Premier.
      After the premier, she went to London and met Harry Belafonte, while waiting on a visa to the US. Belafonte, already a renowned musician and activist, offered to mentor Makeba and set up tours and a debut in New York. It was in New York that Makeba would be immersed in the politics of American race relations in the 60âs. In the book, How it Feels to be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement, author Ruth Feldstein explains how Miriam Makeba (as well as Jazz singers like Nina Simone and Abbie Lincoln) contributed to the civil rights/black power movements and navigated the double oppression of being a woman and black.
      Makeba initially avoided speaking against apartheid outright, most likely because her family was still in South Africa. Her daughter, Bongi, would soon join her in America around the time she received news of her motherâs death. Miriam of course attempted to attend the funeral but discovered that white South African authorities had revoked her passport due to her appearance in Come Back, Africa. Having little more to lose at the hands of the apartheid state of South Africa, Makeba began performing anti-apartheid songs, alongside Nina Simone and Abbie Lincoln who addressed Jim Crow in the US. Feldstein affirms this in saying, âAll three vocalists helped forge a jazz scene in which music was simultaneously an innovative art form, a popular commodity, and increasingly, a strand in larger political interventions that would be named the civil rights and black power movements.â (Feldstein 34)
      Miriamâs music and lyrics (and the many languages in which she sung it) was the main tool in her struggle for liberation (Feldstein 69). In a more direct fashion, Makeba stood for South Africans by testifying at the UN against apartheid several times in 1963-64 and 1975, exposing the police brutality, mass arrests, and oppressive economics in her home country. She continuously faced othering and fetishization in the American media, while at the same time managing to act as a bridge between the plights of black people on two continents. Outside of her own work, this is most apparent in her relationships with Harry Belafonte, as a musical/activist collaborator, and Stokely Carmichael, whom she married. Makeba provided both men with an authenticity (considering her ties to Africa and social currency among its leaders) which was an indispensable boon to their political objectives.
      After a full life of fighting white supremacy with black liberation music and a 30 year exile, Miriam Makeba was welcomed back to South Africa following the release of Nelson Mandela. She is an ideal example of how black musicians used their music to be agents of social change. Makeba was the âVoice of Africaâ, giving a mode of tangible vocal expression to an entire continent and her music was instrumental in dismantling the most notorious vessel of the white power structure at that time.  Â
Books/Articles about MIRIAM MAKEBA
How It Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement - Ruth Feldstein
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