29/09/2023
'A Type of Mamagic' (2023)
A tribute to Miriam Makeba
29.7 x 40 cm approx
Ink, fineliners and marker on paper.
Born in the ghetto of Prospect Town, Miriam lived her whole life with the effects of the South African apartheid. Mud, poverty and discrimination were the main aspects of the her childhood. Since a very young age she worked as a servant for white families.
At the age of 8, Miriam spends 6 months in jail with her mother, since she was sentenced guilty for selling umqombothi (an home made ferment drink similar to beer).
Despite the dificulties, Miriam has a great passion: music. As a teenager, she starts performing in long tournees but, as any other aspect of life, also art is suffering the limiting and segregating law of apartheid.
In 1959, she play a role in 'Come Back, Africa', an anti-apartheid documentary. Hee fame becomes international and she starts collaborating with foreign artists (first of all, Harry Belafonte).
The South African autorities consider Makeba's art as a potential threat. Hence, her passport is cancelled. This is the start of a 30 years long exile that won't allow her to attend her mother funeral, after the Sharpeville massacre.
In USA, she supports publicly Martin Luther King at any possible event.
On the 16th of July 1963, she is invited to speak at the United Nations Special Committe on the Apartheid Politics in South Africa. She strongly asks to stop the discriminatory politics against the black population and to release political prisoners. As a consequence, her music is banned: in this moment, she becomes 'Mama Africa'.
The CIA considers her as a militant and extremist. For this reason, she migrates to Guinea but she does not stop spreading her music.
After the death of her daughter, she moves to Europe but in 1990 she attends the first free elections in her country.
She died of heart attack, at the end of a concert against camorra, in Castel Volturno (Italy).
Grazie Mama Africa! ❤️
