Miriam Makeba

Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress and civil rights activist who campaigned against apartheid. Born near Johannesburg, she sang with the Manhattan Brothers and the Skylarks in the 1950s, and a role in the anti-apartheid film Come Back, Africa (1959) took her to London, where Harry Belafonte became her mentor, and to New York. In 1960 her passport was cancelled when she tried to return for her mother's funeral, and she remained in exile until 1990. She recorded "Pata Pata" (1967), shared a Grammy with Belafonte and testified against the South African government at the United Nations; she died of a heart attack at a concert in Italy in 2008.