Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer and civil rights activist...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionWorld Music Singer
Date of Birth4 March 1932
CityJohannesburg, South Africa
play long world
It's a really unfair world because life is, where I am; all day long we listen to American music. So I don't see why the radios in the U.S. cannot even put aside one hour a day just to play music that is not American.
world blinders ifs
But if you are going to wear blinders then you do not know the world.
music west african-music
African music, though very old, is always being rediscovered in the West.
kings causes citizens
[Belafonte]'d take me to perform for Martin Luther King's cause. But when they were marching I did not take part, because I was not a citizen
hands people pick-me-up
Belafonte sent his people to pick me up and I went back and shook his hand, then went back to my little flat. I was very happy to have met a president of the United States - little me!
swim littles my-thoughts
my thoughts are like quick little fish that swim out of my grasp.
passion trying president
It is very much the theme of our President, President Thabo Mbeki, whose passion is for Africa to work together, and for Africans to get up and do things for us. We are trying as women to do things for ourselves.
funny country farewell
I have to go and say farewell to all the countries that I have been to, if I can. I am 73 now, it is taxing on me.
brother player white
When I was young, I never bought records because my brother Joseph played saxophone and had a record player. I loved listening to his records: The Dorsey Brothers, Duke Ellington, all the big American jazz bands, and vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, Ernestine Anderson, and Kitty White, a singer from the US who was a friend of Nina Simone. Nobody in America seems to know about her, but she was quite popular in South Africa.
reflection careers albums
I titled the album Reflections because I am reflecting on my music career.
long-ago singing singers
I'm not a politician; I am a singer. Long ago, they said, 'That one, she sings politics.' I don't sing politics; I merely sing the truth.
artist ministry culture
Well there is a lot of work here for younger and older musicians now. Our Ministry of Culture has now really embarked on changing things for artists, and it is getting much better. We just have to organize ourselves as artists, and then things will be better.
teacher advice trying
[Belafonte] was a good teacher and looked after me. He said, 'You have such great talent, you must try not to be a tornado - be like a submarine. It was good advice when I found myself speaking at the UN Committee Against Apartheid and then the UN General Assembly.
song new-york land
In New York I heard A Piece of Ground, written by a white South African, Jeremy Taylor. I modified it a little and sang it myself. That song is very special to me because it deals with the land question in southern Africa. We were dispossessed of our land,