Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba -"Mama Africa" to many around the world - ranks as South Africa's greatest musical ambassador. Born in 1932, Makeba had weathered the death of her father, a bout with breast cancer, childbirth and the first of five marriages before she turned twenty.

From her start in a church choir, Makeba went on to sing professionally under the strong influence of her American idols, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Makeba left the popular Manhattan Brothers to join the traveling show African Jazz and Variety, which toured southern Africa for 18 months. Makeba's superior voice then earned her the lead in the musical King Kong, and a film part in Come Back Africa.

Suddenly an international star, Makeba then played at President Kennedy's birthday and worked with Harry Belafonte in New York to create African pop classics including "The Click Song," and "Pata Pata." She won a GRAMMY in 1966 for her collaboration with Belafonte on An. Evening with Harry Belafonte and Miriam Makeba. After the South African government canceled her passport in 1960, Makeba spent decades in exile living mostly in the US, and then in Guinea, where she retreated for nine years after her marriage to black power activist Stokely Carmichael soured her reputation with mainstream American media and the music industry.

Makeba returned to the world stage in 1986 when she joined Paul Simon on the Graceland tour. She writes in her autobiography that music helped her wrestle the dangerous amadlozi spirits her mother passed on to her. She dedicates her exquisite 1988 album Sangoma, rich in tradition, to her mother. After turmoil, tragedy and controversy, Makeba has returned to a free South Africa as a favorite daughter. Her recent work includes a tour and recording session with jazz great Dizzy Gillespie, who died in 1993, as well as a critically acclaimed comeback album, "Homeland," released in 2000, and nominated for a GRAMMY Award in 2001. – Banning Eyre, Courtesy Afropop Worldwide: www.afropop.org