Miriam Makeba wins lifetime award posthumously

By Kiundu WaweruThe late South African singing icon and civil rights campaigner, Miriam Makeba, has been honoured by the MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) as the ‘Mama Legend’. This is a lifetime award for her musical talent and role in bringing African music into the global spotlight.Alex Okosi, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, MTV Networks Africa sums up her life: "Miriam Makeba is a true legend and rightly celebrated throughout the world for her beautiful voice, fighting spirit and pioneering interpretation of African music."This is the third year of the MAMA Awards and Miriam Makeba, popularly known as Mama Africa, follows in the footsteps of previous MAMA Legend winners Fela Anikulapo Kuti, 2008, and Lucky Dube, 2009.STELLAR CAREERHer life as a singer and civil rights activist will be celebrated during the awards ceremony in Lagos, Nigeria tomorrow where Kenyan gospel artiste Daddy Owen is set to perform. Owen has been nominated for the Best Anglophone Category, making history for bagging the first MAMA Gospel nomination. Other Kenyan nominees are P-Unit for Best Group Category and Muthoni Ndonga for the Brand New category.Makeba, whose stellar career spanned more than 50 years, died of heart attack moments after performing in Italy on November 10, 2008 aged 76. She spent 30 years in exile, for fighting against apartheid in South Africa. She only returned to her homeland after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in 1990.The late South African artiste Miriam Makeba never quit her singing career until she died at the age of 76. [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD]Miriam Makeba was born in a suburb of Johannesburg to a Xhosa father, Caswell. Her mother, Christina, was a Swazi and a spiritual healer ( Isangoma).Her father died while she was young, and she was forced to work. However, people would praise her singing in school. Singing was an opportunity for her to rise from poverty. Her big break would come in the early 1950s when she joined The Manhattan Brothers band that specialised on South African Jazz. The Manhattans then travel led abroad and Makeba joined Skylarks, an all female group that recorded about 100 songs, some becoming big hits. She then got an opportunity to travel to African countries with the Manhattans. Her popularity spread to the liberal white community after she landed a role in King Kong, a legendary South African musical about the life of a boxer. Later, Makeba would land another role in the film Come Back Africa, where she played herself in a dramatised documentary on black life, gaining her international fame and success after the director of the film, Lionel Rogosin invited her to attend a screening at the 1959 Venice film festival, where she became an instant celebrity. She later moved to New York.Harry Belafonte took her under his wings helping her record Pata Pata and Click Song which remains her most popular songs to date. In the peak of her music career in mid 60s, while perfoming in San Francisco, it is said that a Kenyan student taught Makeba the song Malaika that became one of her most popular songs, though it brought a lot of controversy in East Africa.Rising starHer star continued to rise although her songs were banned in South Africa. She could not even return to bury her mother in 1960 as her passport had been revoked. In the same year, she released her first studio album, Miriam Makeba. She had attained a celebrity status and she would rub shoulders with famed American personalities. In 1962, she and Harry Belafonte performed at President John F Kennedy’s birthday party at Madison Square Garden attended by among others, actress Marilyn Monroe. Her life revolved around recording music and tours.Accompanied by a group of African top musicians, Makeba visited the continent in 1962, her port of call being Kenya.The following year she gave the first of several addresses to the UN special committee on apartheid, angering South Africa and the government banned her records. During the inauguration of the Organisation of the African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Makeba was the only performer with the invitation of Ethiopian emperor Haile Sellasie.In her lifetime, Makeba married five times, with her third husband being the South African Jazz maestro, Hugh Masekela.In her long and glittering career, Makeba collaborated with renowned musicians like Harry Belafonte, with whom she won a Grammy Award, making her the first African woman to get the Grammy, and Paul Simon.She brought African political issues into the mainstream consciousness and won comparisons with Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra. GOODWILL AMBASSADORAs a victim of oppression, Makeba fought tirelessly to ensure that others would be free from oppression and was appointed a UN Goodwill ambassador in 1999.After returning home in 1990, Makeba was the choice performer during the transition of her country from apartheid. She continued on tours until her death.

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