Miriam Makeba recorded 'Pata Pata' in 1967 with the help of American producer Jerry Ragovoy. It became a huge hit and Miriam Makeba used newfound fame to speak the injustices of apartheid. Her records were banned and South Africa and she was forced to live in exile. Here, people from around the world share their stories about what this iconic track means to them.
Actor John Kani grew up in Johannesburg remembers dancing to the song when it came on the radio and says that Miriam Makeba became an inspiration for how art could bring about change. He plays 'Pata Pata' late in the race when the runners he's pacing are getting tired and says it always lifts the mood.
Angelique Kidjo says Miriam Makeba was the first African woman on the cover of an album. Hearing 'Pata Pata' inspired her to perform, and later in life she and Makeba became friends.
Dr. Niyi Coker devised 'Mama Africa: The Musical' in Cape Town when he realised that a younger generation of South Africans weren't aware of Miriam Makeba of her work. 'Pata Pata' would see two generations of 'Miriam' singing together and it would bring the house down.
Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Toby FieldTechnical Producer: Ilse LademannEditor: Emma HardingWith thanks to Rita Ray, Dr. Miriam Makeba’s commanding voice and inventive takes on R&B and jazz offered a powerful antidote to the gnawing effects of apartheid rule in her native South Africa during her heyday in the ’60s. Makeba’s best-known hits-including 1967’s funky “Pata Pata” and her multiple adaptations of the tongue-clicking, Xhosa-language folk song “The Click Song (Qongqothwane)”-hipped Western audiences to African languages and styles, laying the groundwork for future developments in world music. Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in 1932 in a township near Johannesburg. She had a difficult upbringing, but she found a creative outlet by singing in church choirs and listening to her brother’s Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald records. In the ’50s, her work with various jazz groups and prominent roles in theater performances helped get her a ticket to New York City, where over the next decade she won over American audiences with a string of artfully arranged folk and soul releases-including the Grammy-winning 1965 album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba, recorded with her mentor Harry Belafonte. Makeba faced major setbacks in the late ’60s and ’70s due to her increasing outspokenness as a civil rights activist. But she kept recording and touring, remaining a tireless musical force right up until her death in 2008. A singer, actress and civil rights campaigner, Miriam Makeba was one of South Africa's most legendary performers, popularising her native music all over the world and so revered she became known as Mama Africa. Born in Johannesburg, her mother was a "Swazi sangoma" (herbal healer) whose imprisonment for selling home-made beer meant that Miriam spent the first six months of her life in jail. Her music career began in the early 1950s when she joined the jazz group Manhattan Brothers, leaving them for an all-female group The Skylarks mixing jazz with traditional South African songs. She effectively made her name, though, with the 1956 hit single Pata Pata and her fame grew after she appeared in an award-winning anti-apartheid film Come Back Africa. She followed this by appearing in a Broadway-inspired South African musical, King Kong, where she met and worked with the great trumpeter Hugh Masekela. On a trip to London she met Harry Belafonte, who facilitated appearances for her in America, where she subsequently became a big star, singing with Belafonte at John F. Kennedy's 1962 birthday party at Madison Square. Testifying against apartheid before the United Nations got Makeba banned from her own country, but she was welcomed all over the world and ended up with passports in nine different countries. She continued to campaign against the apartheid system - often in concerts with Belafonte - and sang traditional songs in Zulu, Sotho, Swahili and Xhosa and had an international hit with the Xhosa language Click Song. Her refusal to wear make-up or curl her hair for performances helped give rise to the Afro fashion, although her love affair with America faltered after her marriage to controversial civil rights activist and Black Panther member Stokely Carmichael in 1968 and the couple moved to Guinea. She sang at the famous Muhammad Ali-George Foreman "Rumble In The Jungle" boxing match in Zaire and went on tour with Paul Simon on his Graceland concerts. Makeba was finally allowed to return to South Africa on a French passport in 1990 and had a major hit the following year with the album Eyes Of Tomorrow, featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Hugh Masekela and Nina Simone. Miriam Makeba unleashed Afrosoul that ignited social commentary and a heavy dose of deep funk and R&B. Makeba became a force in the early ‘60s when her album, The World of Miriam Makeba was released. In exile, Makeba used her noble anti-apartheid slant to fuel hits like “Pata Pata” and “the Click Song”, giving her fans the chance to read her albums like short stories full of civil rights and bare romance. Whether singing for John F. Kennedy, recording with Nina Simone, gathering Grammy nominations, or touring with Paul Simon--Makeba was Africa's beacon of hope.
Az afro- és polgárjogi örökség hatása
Miriam Makeba hangsúlyozta, hogy zenei tevékenysége egyfajta ellenállás volt az apartheid rendszerével szemben. A Pata Pata sikere nem csak a kereskedelmi siker volt, hanem a világ figyelmét irányította Dél-Afrika politikai helyzetére, és hozzájárult ahhoz, hogy a zene hangja erőteljes eszközzé váljon a társadalmi változásokhoz. A művész útja a hazájából való száműzetésen át a nemzetközi elismerésig példa arra, hogyan lehet a művészetet közérdekű üggyé alakítani.
Helyi visszhangok és személyes történetek
John Kani Johannesburgban nevelkedett és a rádióban hallották a dalt, amely inspirálta, hogy a művészet változást hozhat. Angelique Kidjo szerint Makeba volt az első afrikai nő, aki albumborítóon szerepelt, és a Pata Pata meghatározta későbbi előadóvá válását. Dr. Niyi Coker szerint a Mama Africa: The Musical Cape Townban segített a fiatalabb generációnak megismerni Makebát és munkásságát, a Pata Pata pedig két generációt hozott össze a színpadon.
A történet nemcsak a zene erejéről szól, hanem arról is, hogyan formálta Makeba a nemzetközi közvéleményt az apartheid elleni harcban. A művésznő közreműködése olyan legendává tette őt, aki nemcsak a színpadon, hanem a társadalmi igazságért folytatott küzdelemben is példát mutatott a világnak.
tags: #miriam #makeba #listening #probaerettsegi