Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope With Her Song

Miriam sang as soon as she could talk and danced as soon as she could walk.

She sang folk songs as her mother played the drums.

She sang pop songs for her brother and his friends.

She sang hymns with her sisters in the Sunday school choir.

“Music gets deep inside me and starts to shake things up!” she said.

And from deep inside, Miriam began to shake up the world…

At church, her choir teacher tells Miriam she is free to sing out!

But out in the world, Miriam is not free. Unless people have white skin, they are not free. Police raid their homes. Sometimes they are arrested. Sometimes they never return. To the baases-the white people who rule South Africa-Miriam’s people are just “Bantus.”

“Bantus”—as if all people with darker skin were the same! Miriam knows better. They are Xhosa, Ndebele, Zulu, Swazi, Tswana, and so many more. They each have their own songs and languages and histories.

But they do have one thing in common: the baases take away their freedom, so they are all Miriam’s people. They have one another, and they will not live this way forever. “Umoya!” she sings. “Spirit!”

The Bantu spirit must be broken, the baases decide. They pass even harsher laws of “apartheid” to keep the races separate, crushing the rights of black people and trying to silence their voices.

But Miriam’s voice will not be silenced. She goes to the big city, Johannesburg, and sings-even protest songs-in IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Setswana, and more, because the baases don’t understand those languages. It is risky. But Miriam has listened to the protest songs of American singers like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, and she feels brave.