Miriam Makeba
Miriam Makeba
Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer and civil rights activist...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionWorld Music Singer
Date of Birth4 March 1932
CityJohannesburg, South Africa
new-york cities names
I didn't have much, but I was always happy to share what I did have. It seemed like every African that came to New York City would show up at my apartment door at dinnertime, and I couldn't turn them away. I wasn't much older than any of them, but they started calling me 'Mama Africa' and the name stuck.
funny country farewell
I have to go and say farewell to all the countries that I have been to, if I can. I am 73 now, it is taxing on me.
kings causes citizens
[Belafonte]'d take me to perform for Martin Luther King's cause. But when they were marching I did not take part, because I was not a citizen
hands people pick-me-up
Belafonte sent his people to pick me up and I went back and shook his hand, then went back to my little flat. I was very happy to have met a president of the United States - little me!
country thinking people
And why is our music called world music? I think people are being polite. What they want to say is that it's third world music. Like they use to call us under developed countries, now it has changed to developing countries, it's much more polite.
swim littles my-thoughts
my thoughts are like quick little fish that swim out of my grasp.
home away-from-home glad
It was hard to be away from home, but I am glad that I am home now.
world blinders ifs
But if you are going to wear blinders then you do not know the world.
believe confusion causes
And I believe that it becomes a troubled continent because there are those who must always cause confusion so that we do not keep these natural resources.
singing dies
I will probably die singing.
play long world
It's a really unfair world because life is, where I am; all day long we listen to American music. So I don't see why the radios in the U.S. cannot even put aside one hour a day just to play music that is not American.
past looks
I look at the past and I see myself.
heart home back-home
In the mind, in the heart, I was always home. I always imagined, really, going back home.
passion trying president
It is very much the theme of our President, President Thabo Mbeki, whose passion is for Africa to work together, and for Africans to get up and do things for us. We are trying as women to do things for ourselves.