Miriam Makeba, the Grammy Award-winning South African folk
singer also known as “Mama Afrika,” died on Monday morning near the southern
Italian town of Caserta
shortly after taking part in a concert against organized crime, hospital
officials announced. She was 76.
Italian news reports regarding the singer’s death have been
confirmed by representatives of the Pineta Grande Clinic, a private facility in
Castel Volturno, where Miriam Makeba passed away, the Associated Press
reported.
According to a report by the ANSA news agency, the artist
suffered a heart attack immediately after the end of the show, during which she
had performed for approximately half an hour in support of Italian journalist
Roberto Saviano, who was threatened with death following the release of his
book about the Camorra, a well-known Naples-based crime syndicate.
Miriam Makeba’s sudden death generated both distress and
sorrow in South Africa, as Sandile Memela, a spokesman for the Arts and Culture
Ministry, explained that her decease represented a “monumental loss not only to
South African society in general but for humanity.”
In the 1950s, the folk singer began touring with the
Manhattan Brothers, an amateur band, and subsequently formed her own group, The
Skylarks, with whom she sang a mix of jazz and traditional South African music.
Although she appeared in the musical “King Kong,” together with her future
spouse, Hugh Masekela, she only won international attention and critical
acclaim in 1959 for her role in the anti-Apartheid documentary “Come Back, Africa.”
She released most of her best known hits (“Pata Pata,” “The
Click Song” and “Malaika”) in the United States and also won a Grammy Award for
Best Folk Recording along with Harry Belafonte for “An Evening With
Belafonte/Makeba,” an album which described the political difficulties of black
South Africans under Apartheid.
In 1960, Miriam Makeba tried to return to South Africa for her mother’s
funeral, but discovered that her passport had been revoked. In addition, she
lost her South African citizenship and her right to return to the country as
well, after she gave her testimony against Apartheid before the United Nations.
In 2000, she received a Grammy Award nomination in the Best
World Music category for “Homeland,” an album produced by Cedric Samson and
Michael Levinsohn. One year later, she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace
Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany and subsequently shared the
Polar Music Prize with Sofia Gubaidulina.
The singer who was voted the 38th in the Top 100
Great South Africans made an international farewell tour approximately three
years ago.
