Miriam Makeba dies in Italy

Mother Africa, the world-renowned South African singer, Grammy Award winner, Anti-apatheid activist, Miriam Makeba has died at the age of 76 after being taken ill near the southern Italian town of Caserta.

She took part in a concert against organised crime for Roberto Saviano, a jornalist/writer threatened with death by the 'mafioso' mafia after writing a book about the Camorra, the Naples-area crime syndicate.

The ANSA news agency reported that Makeba apparently suffered a heart attack just at the end of the concert where she had sung for about 30 minutes.

Born in a shantytown outside of Johannesburg on March 4 1932, Makeba first came to the public's attention as a featured vocalist with the Manhattan Brothers in 1954. She toured the US until 1959.

The following year, when she wanted to return home to bury her mother, the apartheid state revoked her citizenship and also banned her music. As a result, she spent 31 years in exile, living in the US and later in Guinea before becoming the first black African woman to receive a Grammy Award, which she shared with folk singer Harry Belafonte in 1965.

'Pata Pata' 'The click song' "Qongqothwane" & 'Malaika'

In 1963, she appeared before the U.N. Special Committee on Apartheid to call for an international boycott on South Africa. The South African government responded by banning her records. Two years later her fame sky-rocketed with the recording of the all-time hit "Pata Pata". From that point, Makeba stood out for her distinctive clicking sounds, which she used to punctuate songs in her native Xhosa language. She hit an all-time low in 1985 when Bongi, her only daughter, died at the age of 36 from complications from a miscarriage. Makeba did not have money to buy a coffin for Bongi so she buried her alone barring a handful of journalists covering the funeral. But she picked herself up again, as she did many times before, surviving failed marriages and illness.

Grammy Award

In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for "An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba." The album dealt with the political plight of black South African under apartheid.

'Homeland'

She returned to South Africa in the 1990s after Mandela was released from prison but it took a cash-strapped Makeba six years to find someone in the local recording industry to produce a record with her.

She since released "Homeland" which contains a song describing her joy to be back home after her joy to be back home after the many years in exile.

"I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots. Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa and the people without even realising," she said in her biography.

News source: Aljazeera English, Yahoo, BBC, Miriam Makeba's biography
 
Thanks to Maggie C.B for this news alert.