My Favorite Black Musical Artist

02-08-2021

By Maryclare Beche

"I see other black women imitate my style, which is no style at all, but just letting our hair be itself. They call it the Afro Look."

Miriam Makeba

One of my favorite black Musicians is Mirian Makeba also known as Mama Afrika. She was a South African-born singer, songwriter, actress, United Nations goodwill ambassador and civil rights activist. Makeba was one of the world’s most prominent Black African performers in the 20th century. She was very active and outspoken against the the apartheid regime - and used music as a form of resistance. According to South African History Online, Miriam Makeba was the first black musician to leave South Africa on account of apartheid, and over the years many others would follow her. She took up refuge in London after the Venice film festival and met Harry Belafonte, who helped her to immigrate to the USA. In the early 1960s, she shot to fame in the USA overnight, and performed for former US President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in 1962. Among her other admirers were Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, Nina Simone and Miles Davis. In 1968, she married militant African-American civil rights activist and Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael but faced harassment from the US government which forced her to move to Guinea.

You can watch one of my favorite pieces by Miriam Makeba called Hapo Zamani (a long time ago) here.

By Paul Weinberg - direct donation from Author, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26754877