I was sad to wake up to the news today that Miriam Makeba has died. Like many people I am sure, listening to Miriam’s music was my first exposure to non-western music. Her blending of traditional African songs and rhythms with jazz and blues seemed so exotic and beautiful that it has remained a firm favourite of mine ever since, indeed her songs Mbube and Pata Pata feature among my favourite songs of all time.
She is a reminder of the power of music to transport and transform. Through 30 years of exile from her beloved South Africa she never lost her commitment to bring about reform and justice through her music and her witness. Similarly for so many people African and Western alike her music is the embodiment of a continent and its people.
Walking back from a lecture today through a cold, wet and grey Cambridge I put some of her songs on my Ipod and was immediately transported to the plains of Africa, such is the power of her music – her talent was unparalleled, her generosity to the next generation of South African musicians was legendary.
Mama Afrika, you will be missed.
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