Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born March 4th 1932 in Johannesburg, South Africa. You may remember her from an episode of the Cosby Show in ’91 titled Olivia Comes Out Of The Closet. As a child she sang at the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria which she attended for eight years. Her professional career began in the 50s with the Manhattan Brothers before she formed her own female group The Skylarks which consisted of a blend of jazz and traditional melodies from South Africa. In 1963 she testified about apartheid before the United Nations and as a result her citizenship was revoked. She couldn’t attend her mother’s funeral because of this. She toured with Harry Belafonte and won a Grammy in ’66 for her album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. She was also number 38 on the list of Great South Africans. She performed at the Rumble In The Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in 1974. She even sang at the birthday party for then President John. F. Kennedy in 1962. Makeba was awarded a number of acknowledgements including a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986. She performed up until her last breath. While on stage in Italy she collapsed soon after she sang one of her top songs “Pata Pata”. She suffered a heart attack and could not be revived. Ms. Makeba wrote in 1987: “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 realizing.” That’s why they called her Mama Afrika.
