Why was miriam makeba exile
But her personal life was an epic tragedy of injustice, domestic upheaval, exile and torment. Miriam "Zenzi" Makeba was born in a township suburb of Johannesburg. Her father, Caswell, was Xhosa: her mother, Christina, was Swazi. The name Zenzi from the Xhosa Uzenzile, meaning "you have no one to blame but yourself" , was a traditional name intended to provide support through life's difficulties. Later the family moved north to Transvaal, where Caswell worked as a clerk for Shell.
Her mother was a spiritual healer who also took jobs as a housemaid. After the early death of her father, Miriam was forced to work, and for a short spell she also did housework.
But she had already noticed that "music was a type of magic" which could elevate her from the poverty that surrounded her. As a young girl, her singing had been praised at the Methodist Training school in Pretoria, but what should have been the highlight of her amateur career turned to disappointment.
She had been due to sing What a Sad Life for a Black Man for the visit of King George VI, but after the children had stood waiting in the rain, the royal visitor drove by without stopping to hear them. When apartheid was introduced to South Africa in , Makeba was old enough to grasp the consequences, and to see the limitations placed on the career of her mentor Dolly Rathebe, her senior by four years.
Makeba gave birth to her daughter Bongi at the age of 17 and was then diagnosed with breast cancer, which was treated unconventionally, but successfully, by her mother. The first of her five husbands left her shortly after. Her musical career progressed more smoothly. Since the turn of the century, American jazz and ragtime had been absorbed into South Africa and transposed into local forms.
Combined with Anglican church hymnody, this had led to the distinctive vocal harmonic style known as mbube, practised in many communities by "evening" or "night" choirs of enthusiastic amateurs.
Following a period with the Cuban Brothers, Makeba's big break came in when she joined the Manhattan Brothers, a top band whose vocal harmonies were modelled on the American Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots.
Initially, when the Manhattans travelled abroad Makeba joined a female group called the Sunbeams, who became better known as the Skylarks. They recorded more than songs, many of which became big hits, with Miriam singing alongside Abigail Kubeka, Mummy Girl Nketle, Mary Rabatobi and sometimes with Dorothy Masuka, who brought songs from her homeland of Northern Rhodesia now Zambia. Eventually, Makeba went on tour with the Manhattans, getting her first taste of the outside by world visiting Rhodesia Zimbabwe and Congo.
Playing at home she also experienced some of the most heartless and shameful aspects of the apartheid system, which she later recalled in her autobiography, Makeba: My Story , written with James Hall. In she was recruited as a soloist in the African Jazz and Variety Review that toured Africa for 18 months.
Then she landed the female lead role in King Kong, a legendary South African musical about the life of a boxer, which played to integrated audiences and spread her reputation to the liberal white community.
The key to her international success was a small singing part in the film Come Back Africa, a dramatised documentary on black life directed covertly by Lionel Rogosin. Makeba played herself, singing two songs in a shebeen. After this Makeba sang for all-women group, the Skylarks, which combined jazz and traditional African melodies. She later married her King Kong co-star, Hugh Masekela, in Makeba arrived in New York in November , later resigning herself to exile after South Africa refused to renew her passport.
King Kong was about a boxer who kills his sweetheart and later dies in prison. To avoid the apartheid laws that divided the public, the musical was often performed at universities. Makeba was soon in trouble with the South African authorities, who had received negative attention through the presentation of the film. Therefore, Makeba decided not to return to South Africa from where she got little or nothing in terms of payment for her performances.
The South African government then revoked her passport and denied her the possibility of returning to South Africa. She was the first black musician to leave South Africa on account of apartheid, and over the years many others would follow her. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in They call it the Afro Look.
In , she testified about apartheid at the United Nations and her South African citizenship was taken away from her. She lived in the US thereafter and her records were banned in South Africa. She was also the first black woman to have a Top-Ten worldwide hit with Pata Pata in In total, she recorded four albums in the USA. In , she married militant African-American civil rights activist and Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael but harassment from the US government and forced to move to Guineau.
Despite the efforts of other nations of the world to change the oppressive ways of apartheid government, their attempts had fallen short of their expectations. The boycott was a public form of resistance made by many South African artists. The goal was to tighten the strains on the South African to force them to make the desired changes. Each signer of the boycott vowed to distance themselves from the South African government until the government recognized the equality of white and blacks.
The scandals surrounding the tour ended in many scholarly debates that questioned how singing was helping put an end to apartheid government. Hamm admits that to a certain degree the Graceland tour is strongly associated with South Africa, but he states the tour benefited the artists more than the movement itself.
While Hamm saw the tour as a way for artists to earn more money and fame, scholar Dave Laing saw it as a form of resistance. Laing argues music can be a form to combat oppressors. Hamm claimed the music, even though it was criticizing the South African government, was only making the artists richer. Music has a power of its own. As demonstrated by Miriam Makeba who utilised her instrument, her voice, to popularize the South African culture and expose apartheid government.
Thus Hamm was only focusing on the monetary aspect of the tour. This resulted in her depending on performances for her income. Nevertheless, this fact does not take away from her desire to put an end to the apartheid; these concerts, which are considered political rallies, was her form of resisting. Notably Makeba took an even stronger stand against the apartheid government when she delivered a speech at the United Nations. The African National Congress exile leaders asked her to speak at United Nations General Assembly because of her popularity and her ability to read and write [xviii] Miller, She made it her mission to reveal and bring awareness to the issues faced by the people of South Africa.
She asked the leaders of other countries to put themselves in the place of the Africans, who were under the apartheid. Miriam Makeba was calling the nations of the world to action; she wanted them to intervene in South Africa. Makeba strongly believed that intervention from other countries was the only way to end the apartheid government.
Miriam Makeba was an activist against the apartheid government. Another way she voiced these political, controversial problems was in her songs. Miriam Makeba did not use a conventional tactic in her anti-apartheid activism. She took a different approach to combat the apartheid government in South Africa. On top of the usual rallies or protests, Makeba used her vocal chords and sung melodies to reveal the inequalities suffered in South Africa.
Allingham, Rob, Feldstein, Ruth, Hamm, Charles Laing, Dave Makeba, M. Masekela, Hugh, Soweto Blues, Performed by Makeba, Miriam. Casablanca Records. Makeba: My Story.
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