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| late Makeba a.k.a Mama Africa |
Miriam Makeba is the subject of today's
Google doodle. Born March 4th 1932, Zenzile Miriam Makeba nicknamed Mama
Africa was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist best known
for the song "Pata Pata”.
Though going to jail when she was just eighteen
days old after her mother was sent to prison for six months for selling illegal
beer, and losing her father at the age of six, Miriam beat the odds to begin her
professional career in the 1950s when she was featured in the South African
jazz group the Manhattan Brothers which she later left to record with her
all-woman group, The Skylarks, singing a mix of jazz and traditional melodies
of South Africa. In 1956, she released the single "Pata Pata", which
was a radio hit and is still considered by many to be Makeba's signature hit, being
covered by many artists. Originally written and sung in the Xhosa language, the
song's title means "touch touch" in English.
She is believed to be the first artist from
Africa to popularize African music in the U.S. and around the world in the 60’s.
She actively campaigned against the South African system apartheid.
As a result, she discovered that her South African passport had been revoked in
1960 and the South African government revoked her citizenship and right of
return in 1963. As the apartheid system crumbled she returned home for the
first time in 1990.
Makeba died of a heart attack
on 9 November 2008 after performing in a concert in Italy.
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