Mariam Makeba was raised in the townships of Johannesburg, South Africa by a Swazi mother and a Xhosa father. She began singing with a band called the Skylarks who blended jazz and traditional South African melodies. As she became wrapped up in the anti-Apartheid movement her songs became political. Eventually she was exiled from South Africa and came to the United States. However her marriage to Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael lost her favor in this country as well.
In 1966 she preformed this show at Bern's Salonger, a baroque dinner-club in Stockholm Sweden. Here we see Makeba in all her glory - powerful, seductive, supremely confident (and wearing a real jaguar skin.)
In 1966 she preformed this show at Bern's Salonger, a baroque dinner-club in Stockholm Sweden. Here we see Makeba in all her glory - powerful, seductive, supremely confident (and wearing a real jaguar skin.)
Later in her life Makeba succumbed to a "spiritual madness" that she believed she inherited from her mother. In November 2008 her heart finally gave out while performing her signature song, Pata Pata, during a concert in Italy.