Zilipendwa - Pata Pata

Huu wimbo wa Pata Pata ilikuwa kiboko enzi zile. Uliimbwa na MSwazi, Miriam Makeba aka Mama Africa.

UPDATE - Kifo cha Miriam Makeba 'Mama Africa'

Body of S African singing legend Makeba arrives home

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) — South African singing legend and activist "Mama Africa" Miriam Makeba on Wednesday made her final journey home, arriving in Johannesburg from Italy where she died age 76.

Makeba's wooden coffin was met at OR Tambo Airport by the singer's family, who were joined by arts minister Pallo Jordan and several prominent South African musicians.

Family and friends led a procession of cars to take the coffin from the airport to a mortuary in Soweto, radio reports said.

The South African cabinet was discussing a state funeral for Makeba during its weekly meeting, said arts ministry spokesman Sandile Memela.

"There is no doubt that the whole question of whether Mama Africa should recieve a state funeral will definitely come up," said Memela.

"A decision has not yet been made but it is hoped that at the end of the meeting... we'll know what the plans are."

Makeba's band, who returned to South Africa on Tuesday, gave details of the star's final concert to the local media.

"She was enjoying herself," Zamo Mbutho, a backing singer and composer with the band, told the Sowetan newspaper.

The audience had loved her performance, althought she played fewer songs than originally planned. She finished off with "Pata Pata", one of her best known hits, he added.

"After the song she thanked the audience, blew kisses at them with a radiant smile and left the stage. As she went past me, she put the mic on the drum. As she went down the stairs, she fell."

"It was the first time she left alone," guitarist Mandla Zikalala told the Star.
Born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932, Makeba was one of Africa's best known singers, famed for hits such as "Pata Pata" and "The Click Song" but also for speaking out about the abuses of apartheid.

South Africa's white regime revoked Makeba's citizenship in 1960 and even refused to let her return for her mother's funeral. The singer spent more than three decades in exile, living in the United States, Guinea and Europe.

Makeba won a Grammy award for Best Folk Recording with US singer Harry Belafonte in 1965. But her music was outlawed in her homeland after she appeared in an anti-apartheid film.

"I kept my culture. I kept the music of my roots," she said in her biography. "Through my music I became this voice and image of Africa, and the people, without even realising."

While she was still in enforced exile, she performed with Paul Simon in the US singer's 1987 Graceland concert in Zimbabwe, neighbouring South Africa.

She finally returned to her homeland in the 1990s after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, as the apartheid system they had both fought for so long began to be dismantled.

But it took her six years to find someone in the South African recording industry to produce a record with her. She entitled it "Homeland."

Miriam Makeba akiimba Pata Pata

Miriam Makeba akiimba Brazil 1968.

Rest in Peace - Miriam Makeba 'Mama Africa'

Miriam Makeba akiimba huko Italia jana muda mfupi kabla ya kifo chake. Watu waliokuwepo wanasema aliimba vizuri mno na alivyomaliza walikuwa wanataka aimbe tena, lakini ndo alishaanguka na kukimbizwa hospitalini.

Miriam Makeba 1932-2008

Mwimbaji maarufu wa Afrika Kusini, Mama Miriam Makeba amefariki dunia huko Italia. Habari zinasema kuwa alikuwa anafanya oncert huko na alianguka mara baada ya kumaliza kuimba. Wanasema kuwa alipata ugonjwa wa moyo (Heart attack). Mama Makeba alikuwa na miaka 76.

Alikuwa ni mcheza sinema pia, aliigiza kama mama yake, Sarafina, kaitika sinema Sarafina, na sinema zingine.

Nyimbo zake kama Malaika, Pata Pata, The Click song na Jikele Maweni zilikuwa maarufu sana miaka ya 60 na 70 na pia aliwahi kushinda tuzo la Grammy Marekani.

Mungu ailaze roho yake mahala pema mbinguni. AMEN.

REST IN PEACE MAMA AFRICA.

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South African Singer Miriam Makeba Dies

November 10, 2008 ,

Diane Coetzer, Johannesburg

South Africans are mourning the loss of Grammy-winning singer Miriam Makeba, who died in Italy last night (Nov. 9).

The singer has been described as "one of the greatest songstresses of our time," by the country's Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, and tributes to Makeba are pouring in from her creative collaborators.

Makeba died at the Veneto Verde hospital near Naples after performing at the Castel Volturno.

Although no official word has been received of the cause of death, the 76-year-old reportedly suffered a heart attack after taking part in a concert for Roberto Saviano, a writer threatened with death by the Mafia over his expose "Gomorrah." Her last performance was a half-hour set alongside other singers and artists.

Makeba's publicist, Cape Town-based Marc le Chat, has confirmed that the singer had been struggling with arthritis over the past years but had still been accepting key live dates.

Many here are seeing it as important that "Mama Africa" -- as Makeba was dubbed -- died after performing for a cause that puts human rights in the spotlight.

Makeba had first come to fame as a singer with the Manhattan Brothers in the 1950s. She later formed her own group, the Skylarks, and joined the cast of the now iconic musical "King Kong." In 1959 she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary "Come Back, Africa," which led to a meeting with Harry Belafonte, who helped Makeba gain entry to the United States, where she lived in exile.

Among her many notable achievements was becoming the first African woman to win a Grammy, gor Best Folk Recording in 1966 with Belafonte for "An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba." Makeba also scored hits with "Pata Pata" and "The Click Song."

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