Tuesday, November 11, 2008

 

In memoriam: Miriam Makeba

Peter Popham said it well—

Miriam Makeba died gloriously on Sunday night: the World Music star and anti-apartheid icon finished her set at the concert for Roberto Saviano with her most famous song, "Pata Pata", acknowledged the ovation with a bow and a smile, walked off stage – then collapsed and died. Italian papers called it a tragedy, which in a way it was, but in another way it was a triumph.

Though she lived in exile from South Africa, which banned her recordings, she embodied such joy and hopefulness that even a lugubrious teenager of the Sixties could hear it and share it—

Love Tastes Like Strawberries - Miriam Makeba

As for her death, Makeba expressed herself in this recording from 1966, which she was still singing 30 years later—

When Ive Passed On - Miriam Makeba

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