 | Jay Rothermel on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
| Jay Rothermel on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
 | Craig Bourne on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
 | Mike E on Socialist Democracy, Snowflake… |
 | amte on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
 | Stanley W. Rogouski on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
| Stanley W. Rogouski on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
| Mike E on Rough Notes on the Indian Comm… |
| Mike E on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
 | Miles Ahead on Fighting in Honduras Rejects… |
| Mike E on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
 | Rosa L. on Socialist Democracy, Snowflake… |
| Craig Bourne on Two Views on Public Enemi… |
 | lord vegan on Revolutionary Work in Our Time… |
 | Harsh Thakor on Interview: An Inside Look at M… |
Sign up for our Email Newsletter
Posted by Mike E on November 10, 2008
As news reached us of Miriam’s death, there is no better way to remember this great voice of resistance than to share her songs.
“Soweto Blues” hailing the uprising of South Africa’s brave youth.
A video obituary:
This entry was posted on November 10, 2008 at 9:30 am and is filed under >> analysis of news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
entdinglichung said
she will be missed deeply – ¡Miriam presente!
Sole said
What a voice! To think of all the people she inspired by sharing it…Her passing is sad, but I can’t help feeling happy to celebrate her life.
lunita said
thank you for sharing this! a voice like glass and such inspiring lyrics!! what talent and courage! this artist and her music truly inspire and live on!
Mike E said
Miriam Makeba’s last song
http://www.hindu.com/2008/11/11/stories/2008111157552000.htm
PARIS: South Africa is in mourning. Mariam Makeba, better known as
Mamma Africa or the Songbird of Africa, is no more.
The South African singer who, along with Nelson Mandela, came to be
identified with her country’s struggle against apartheid rule and
whose songs became a rallying cry for black freedom, died in Italy
early on Monday after performing at a protest concert. She was 76.
She had been singing at a concert protesting Mafia rule in Italy and
in support of Roberto Saviano, an author who has received death
threats since writing about organised crime. She collapsed as she was
leaving the stage and died of a heart attack shortly after she was
taken to a hospital near Naples.
Although arthritis had weakened her once agile limbs and age had
dimmed her vision, nothing had diminished her powerful voice or
affected her resolve to fight for justice. She died as she had lived,
fighting for truth and justice through her songs. She shot to
international fame with titles such as “Pata Pata,” which was her
first world hit.
In South Africa she was seen as an everlasting symbol of the pain and
humiliation suffered by black people under the apartheid system of
racial segregation that only ended with the release from prison of
Nelson Mandela in 1990.
After the South African regime cancelled her passport in 1960, Mariam
Makeba spent 31 years in exile, living in France, Guinea and Belgium,
and the United States. She was prevented from attending her mother’s
funeral after touring in the U.S. He music was banned on stateowned
South African radio and television after she condemned the racist
South African regime at the U.N. headquarters in 1976.
“I never understood why I couldn’t come home,” Makeba said at an
emotional homecoming in Johannesburg in 1990 as the apartheid system
began to crumble. “I never committed any crime.”
She wrote in her memoirs: “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.”
In an interview in 2008, she 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.”
Mandela’s tribute
Describing her as “the mother of South Africa,” Nelson Mandela gave
voice to his country’s pain as tributes poured in for the legendary
singer.
“She was South Africa’s first lady of song and so richly deserved the
title of Mama Africa. She was a mother to our struggle and to the
young nation of ours,” he said in a statement.
“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. Even after she returned home
she continued to use her name to make a difference by mentoring
musicians and supporting struggling young women,” he added.
The South African Government mourned her. “One of the greatest
songstresses of our time, Mariam Makeba has ceased to sing,” said
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.
Mariam Makeba’s husbands included the American black activist Stokely
Carmichael, with whom she lived in Guinea, and the jazz trumpeter Hugh
Masekela, who also spent many years in exile.
(c) Copyright 2000 – 2008 The Hindu
Ethipian: said
Mariam Makeba,was better known by Mama Africa in all African countries. She was a mother to all peace seekers especially before a decayed of years, where most African were suffering from injustice and inhumane actions in their own home land.
so, she has paied all her best and now is the rule of Nature.