There is no me without you! “When both the Black Male and Black Female take up the struggle for JUSTICE against White Supremacy, they are endowed with the strongest possible insurance that they will remain UNITED. By specifically fighting White Supremacy, they prevent that force of injustice from driving them apart.” – Dr. Frances Cress Welsing.
"I discovered that this attractive, apparently so gentle, mature woman was a very political creature, in fact an uncompromising militant where her people's freedom was concerned. In this, she was tireless, always on call for the countless liberation struggles everywhere on the continent...Looking at her calm confidence, one would never guess all that this African woman's life had been. She was a survivor. And a beautiful spirit."
Miriam Makeba, or "Mother of Africa" as it translates in her native Xhosa culture, has been an international singing sensation for over 40 years. Born into the apartheid society of South Africa, the Grammy-award winning singer was put into exile by the former South African regime. Known for her smooth, sensual voice and her striking beauty, Makeba continues to be an international icon; however, her story is also one of struggle and triumph, in which she emerges as not only an entertainer, but a political apologist of anti-racism and the freedom of her South African people.
Kwame Ture first met Makeba at the age of 19 while at Howard University. They were introduced again by Madame Shirley Graham DuBois in Conakry during the late 1960s. Sharing a revolutionary spirit and a mutual admiration, they were married in 1969. Soon after, all Makeba's shows in the United States were cancelled. While the US governemnt revoked his passport, the American media defamed Ture's name, and the FBI kept close watch over him, Makeba suffered also. However, as Ture stated, "she never once expressed any regret toward me, or anything associating me with the loss of her American career." They divorced in 1979, but they were always devoted to each other, and until the end of Ture's life, maintained a healthy friendship.
Their marriage represented more than a personal relationship, but for many people of the 1960s and 70s, the representative union of African Americans and Africans in the spirit of Pan-Africanism, as they were both staunch Pan-Africanists. While this burden may have been much for them, in many ways, Makeba was the manifestation of everything Ture loved about Africa. Through her, he was able to dedicate his life to the cause of African liberation on a more personal, tender level.
