
Miriam Makeba “Mama Afrika” was born on March 4th 1932. Her professional career began in the 1950s with the Manhattan Brothers, before she formed her own group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa. Though she was a successful recording artist, she did not make as much as she wanted to make. Her big break came when she stared inn an anti- apartheid documentary, Come Back Africa in 1959. Makeba then traveled to London where she met Harry Belafonte who made her gain fame in the United States. She released many of her most famous hits there including Pata Pata, The Click Song (Qongqothwane in Xhosa), and Malaika. In 1966, Mama Afrika received a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording. The album was well known for its political revolution on the fight of black South Africans. In 1963, she testified in front of the UN Committee against Apartheid and her records were banned in South Africa after which she lost her citizenship and rights to return to south. Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Toure and his wife. Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. She also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjold Peace Prize in 1986.
Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990 and in 1992 she stared in the movie Sarafina about the 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany, “for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she won the Polar Music Prize. In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a 14 month worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life. She is living proof that African women can be very successful if they put their minds and soul to it.
Nelson Mandela persuaded her to return to South Africa in 1990 and in 1992 she stared in the movie Sarafina about the 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising. In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany, “for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". In 2002, she won the Polar Music Prize. In 2004, Makeba was voted 38th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Makeba started a 14 month worldwide farewell tour in 2005, holding concerts in all of those countries that she had visited during her working life. She is living proof that African women can be very successful if they put their minds and soul to it.