Mandy Leontakianakis
Miriam Makeba died last night, leaving the stage of her final performance at a concert in Italy.
She was 76 years old.
Her contribution to our national voice included making South African folk music known to an international audience during the sixties, at the time of her enforced exile from this country: "I never understood why I couldn't come home.... I never committed any crime."
Makeba spent more than three decades in exile, singing her songs of the personal landscape of home on unfamiliar stages.
"Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us," Mandela said in a statement.
He said it was "fitting" that her last moments were spent on stage.
At an interview with Britain's Guardian Newspaper earlier this year, Makeba said: "I'm not a political singer, I don't know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us."
He said it was "fitting" that her last moments were spent on stage.
At an interview with Britain's Guardian Newspaper earlier this year, Makeba said: "I'm not a political singer, I don't know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us."
The TimesOnline ran these tributes from Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Letta Mbulu and Thandiswa Mazwai:
Click to Listen
'Mama Afrika Remembered'
http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/audio/2008/11/mama-africa-remembered/
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