Honoring Mama Africa: A Struggle of a Courageous Singer Portrayed in a Daring Dance Drama

“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a queen,” remarks the choreographer. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba also spent time in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a simple biography but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in 1959, Makeba was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often managed by a host. Makeba’s mother Christina was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, she went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she established her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba sings at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was always requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), she discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child the girl passed away in labor in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states Seutin.

Development and Themes

These reflections went into the making of the production (premiered in the city in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the piece was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the players on stage. Her dance composition incorporates various forms of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like the form.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (She died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” She wanted to adopt the similar method in this production. “We see movement and hear melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. This is what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at the city, the dates