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Miriam Makeba
Zenzile Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid and white-minority government in South Africa.
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entertainment · South African singer and activist (1932–2008) · singer · actor · recording artist · composer · musician · also Miriam Makeba, Mama Africa, Zenzile Miriam Makeba, Miriam Zenzi Makeba, Zensile Makeba Qgwashu Nguvama Yiketheli Nxgowa Bantana Balomzi Xa Ufnu Ubajabulisa Ubaphekeli Mbiza Yotshwala Sithi Xa Saku Qgiba Ukutja Sithathe Izitsha Sizi Khabe Singama Lawu Singama Qgwashu Singama Nqamla Nqgithi, Mirjam Makeba
Born 4 March 1932 · Died 9 November 2008 · Q146256
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Zenzile Miriam Makeba name
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2026· 11 entries
Published video “One More Dance”.
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Published video “Olilili”.
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Published video “Where does it lead”.
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Published video “Lakutshn, Ilanga”.
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Published video “Suliram”.
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Published video “House of the Rising Sun”.
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Published video “Umhome”.
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Published video “The Retreat Song”.
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Published video “The Naughty Little Flea”.
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Published video “Mbube”.
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2024· 1 entry
Released album “The Unforgettable”.
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2021· 2 entries
Released album “The Roots of Miriam Makeba, From South Africa to New York”.
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And released a tribute album dedicated to her, Zenzile: The Reimagination of Miriam Makeba (2022)
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2020· 1 entry
As one of a list of 100 "women of the year" for the years 1920–2019
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2017· 2 entries
Released album “In Concert!”.
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Google honoured her with a Google Doodle on their homepage
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2016· 1 entry
Released album “Original Album Classics”.
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2015· 3 entries
Released album “Makeba Sings!”.
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Released album “The Indispensable Miriam Makeba, 1955–1962”.
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The French singer Jain released "Makeba", a tribute
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2014· 3 entries
Released album “Live at Avo Session (Basel)”.
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Released album “Forbidden Games”.
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Was honoured (along with Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu and Steve Biko) in the Belgian city of Ghent, which named a square after her, the "Miriam Makebaplein"
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2013· 3 entries
Released album “African Dawn”.
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Released album “The Sound of Africa”.
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Released album “Mama Africa”.
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2012· 1 entry
Released album “Queen of African Music”.
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2011· 4 entries
Released album “The Sweet Sound of Africa”.
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Released album “The Many Voices of Miriam Makeba”.
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Released ep “Hi-a Ma (Pata Pata)”.
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Released album “The Click Song - Best of Miriam Makeba”.
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2010· 1 entry
Released album “South Africa's Skylark”.
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2009· 2 entries
Released album “Mama Afrika 1932-2008”.
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Awarded Order of Ikhamanga in Gold (2009).
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2008· 23 entries
Died 2008-11-09.
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“[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”
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Released album “The Legend”.
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“Girls are the future mothers of the , it is important we focus on their wellbeing.”
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“It's because they want to sound like Americans. I'd like to see them develop our music and sing it their way, but they think sounding American is going to take them higher, but it is not. They have beautiful voices, but they want to sound like Whitney Houston. You can't beat people like that at their own game. And they can't beat me at mine, either!”
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“[W]hen the President's visitors came to Guinea, we were all called on to go and entertain them. I've never seen a country that did what Sékou Touré did for artists. Even in South Africa today we are not nurtured like that.”
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“It was not a ban from the government. It was a cancellation by people who felt I should not be with Stokely because he was a rebel to them. I didn't care about that. He was somebody I loved, who loved me, and it was my life.”
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“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!”
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“[Belafonte] was a good teacher and looked after me. He said, 'You have such great talent, you must try not to be a tornado - be like a submarine. It was good advice when I found myself speaking at the UN Committee Against Apartheid and then the UN General Assembly.”
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“I will probably die singing.”
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“In those years, when I came to the States, people were always asking me why I didn’t sing anymore. I’d tell them, ‘I sing all around the world—Asia, Africa, Europe—but if you don’t sing in the US, then you haven’t really made it.’ That’s why I’ll always be grateful to Paul Simon. He allowed me to bring my music back to my friends in this country.”
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“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.”
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“It is absurd to say that we Africans were not in Africa when white people first came. And secondly, The conqueror writes history. They came, they conquered and they wrote. Now, you don't expect people who came to invade us to write the truth about us. They will always write negative things about us. And they have to do that because they have to justify their invasions in all the countries.”
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“We don't write our history. It has always been handed down to us orally by our elders.”
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“The white man, where ever he is, whether he is in the majority or the minority, he rules. It just proves to everyone that we have to keep fighting.”
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“Everywhere I performed in Brazil, I never saw black people. I only performed to white people. And they (the white people) said it's because they (the black people) can't afford to come here - it's too expensive. That is another form of keeping them from coming to where they can enjoy themselves together with white people. They keep them poor.”
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“In New York I heard A Piece of Ground, written by a white South African, Jeremy Taylor. I modified it a little and sang it myself. That song is very special to me because it deals with the land question in southern Africa. We were dispossessed of our land.”
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“The tragedy of civil wars in countries like Angola and Mozambique is that they left many civilians maimed. Poverty is the reason HIV/AIDS spread so rapidly in the African townships and slums. Poverty is the real killer.”
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“The man at the desk took my passport. He did not speak to me. He took a rubber stamp and slammed it down. Then he walked away. I picked up my passport. It was stamped 'Invalid'. 'They have done it,' I told myself. 'They have exiled me. I am not permitted to go home — not now, maybe not ever. My family, my home. Everything that has gone into the making of myself, gone.”
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“I look at an ant and see myself: a native South African, endowed with a strength much greater than my size, so I might cope with the weight of racism that crushes my spirit.”
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“That was the only time my mother saw me on stage. At one point in the play I am strangled and my mother jumped from her seat and screamed: 'No. You will not get away with murder. You cannot do this to my daughter.' Friends explained to her that this was not for real — that we were acting. But she made such a fuss. Everyone was so embarrassed. On stage my heart sank.”
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“I still don't know why they banned me" she says. "I said to them, 'What did I do? I never killed anybody. I was never arrested for anything bad, so why can't I go home?.”
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“I'm not a political singer. I don't know what the word means. People think I consciously decided to tell the world what was happening in South Africa. No! I was singing about my life, and in South Africa we always sang about what was happening to us — especially the things that hurt us.”
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2006· 2 entries
Released album “Her Essential Recordings: The Empress of African Song”.
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Released album “Le Monde de Myriam Makeba”.
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2005· 1 entry
Announced that she would retire and began a farewell tour, but despite having osteoarthritis, continued to perform until her death
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2004· 1 entry
Released album “Reflections”.
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2003· 3 entries
Awarded Order for Meritorious Service (2003).
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Released album “The Best of the Early Years”.
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Was awarded South Africa's Order for Meritorious Service, and in the next year, she was voted 38th in a poll ranking 100 Great South Africans
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2002· 5 entries
Awarded Commander of the Legion of Honour (2002).
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Awarded Polar Music Prize (2002).
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Released album “In Concert / Pata Pata / Makeba!”.
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Released album “Miriam Makeba / The World Of Miriam Makeba”.
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Released album “The Definitive Collection”.
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2001· 4 entries
Won Otto Hahn Peace Medal (2001).
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Released album “Mama Africa: The Very Best of Miriam Makeba”.
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Released album “The Guinea Years”.
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Along with awards for Best adult contemporary album and Best Jazz Vocal album for her 2003 album Reflections, as well as Best DVD for her live album Live at Bern's Salonger, Stockholm, Sweden, 1966, at the tenth ceremony
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2000· 3 entries
Released album “Homeland”.
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In an interview in 2000, Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba."
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Masekela said that "there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba
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1998· 1 entry
Released album “Best of Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks”.
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1997· 1 entry
Released album “Hits & Highlights”.
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1996· 1 entry
Released album “Live From Paris & Conakry”.
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1994· 1 entry
Released album “Folk Songs From Africa”.
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1993· 1 entry
Released album “Sing Me a Song”.
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1991· 6 entries
Released album “Miriam Makeba and the Skylarks, Volume 2”.
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Awarded honorary degree from Spelman College (1991).
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Released album “Africa”.
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Released album “Eyes on Tomorrow”.
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Released album “The Queen of African Music, Volume 2”.
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Released album “Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks, Volume 1”.
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1990· 2 entries
State President Frederik Willem de Klerk reversed the ban on the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid organisations, and announced that Mandela would shortly be released from prison
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Makeba returned to South Africa
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1989· 2 entries
Released album “A Promise”.
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Released album “Welela”.
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1988· 1 entry
Released album “Sangoma”.
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1987· 2 entries
Released album “The Queen of African Music”.
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For release as Graceland: The African Concert
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1986· 2 entries
And in 2001 was awarded the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding"
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Released album “Myriam Makeba”.
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1979· 1 entry
Released album “Comme une symphonie d'amour / Malaisha / Sabelani / African Convention”.
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1978· 2 entries
Released album “Country Girl”.
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Divorced and in 1981 she married Bageot Bah, an airline executive
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1977· 2 entries
Released album “Pata Pata: Live for My Brothers and Sisters”.
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And during a Liberian performance of "Pata Pata", the stadium proved so loud that she was unable to complete the song
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1976· 1 entry
The South African government replaced English and native South African languages with Afrikaans as the medium of instruction for many subjects in black schools, setting off the Soweto uprising
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1975· 2 entries
Released album “Harry Belafonte & Miriam Makeba”.
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Visited Mozambique as part of a Guinean delegation to mark Mozambique's independence from Portugal
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1972· 1 entry
Released album “Live in Africa”.
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1970· 2 entries
Released album “Keep Me in Mind”.
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(referring to Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated Prime Minister of the Congo), and "Malcolm X" in 1974
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1968· 4 entries
And consequently lost support among white Americans
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Released album “The Best of Miriam Makeba”.
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Released album “Click Song”.
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Released album “Makeba!”.
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1967· 2 entries
More than ten years after she first recorded the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the US on an album of the same title, and became a worldwide hit
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Released album “Pata Pata”.
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1966· 4 entries
Released album “The Magnificent Miriam Makeba”.
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Released album “The Magic of Makeba”.
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Released album “The World of Miriam Makeba”.
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Released album “All About Miriam”.
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1965· 1 entry
Released album “An Evening With Belafonte/Makeba”.
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1964· 4 entries
Testified at the UN for a second time, quoting a song by Vanessa Redgrave in calling for quick action against the South African government
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Released album “The Voice of Africa”.
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Makeba released her second studio album for RCA Victor, The World of Miriam Makeba
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Was taught the song "Malaika" by a Kenyan student while backstage at a performance in San Francisco; the song later became a staple of her performances
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1962· 2 entries
Makeba and Belafonte sang at the birthday party for US President John F
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In support of the country's independence from British colonial rule, and raised funds for its independence leader Jomo Kenyatta
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1960· 2 entries
Released album “Miriam Makeba”.
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Makeba learned that her mother had died
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1959· 3 entries
Makeba had a brief role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa, which brought her international attention, and led to her performing in Venice, London, and New York City
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Makeba sang the lead female role in the Broadway-inspired South African jazz opera King Kong; among those in the cast was the musician Hugh Masekela
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Had a short guest appearance in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid film produced and directed by the American independent filmmaker Lionel Rogosin
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1957· 1 entry
Makeba was featured on the cover of Drum magazine
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1956· 2 entries
Gallotone Records released "Lovely Lies", Makeba's first solo success and first recording in English
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Joined a new all-woman group, the Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional South African melodies
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1955· 1 entry
Makeba met Nelson Mandela, then a young lawyer; he later remembered the meeting, and that he felt that the girl he met "was going to be someone
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1953· 1 entry
And developed a national reputation as a musician
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1949· 1 entry
Makeba married James Kubay, a policeman in training, with whom she had her only child, Sibongile "Bongi" Makeba, in 1950
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1932· 1 entry
Born 1932-03-04.
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