Mariam Makeba aka "Mama Africa" (1932 - 2008)
Dear friends,
Almost forty years ago, I had both the pleasure and honor of meeting Mariam Makeba. At the time, she was married to Stokely Carmichael (later known as Kwame Ture). Stokely was the chief icon of the Black Consciousness Movement. Mariam was a celebrated singer and activist in her own right. The two had married not quite two years earlier.
They had been living in Africa, while Stokely studied under Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the former president of Ghana and the main proponent of the concept of Pan Africanism at the time. On this, his first trip back to the States, word got out to activists in Boston's Black community that Stokely was coming through Logan Airport. In a hurry, a group of us, which included some Black college students from Northeastern University, were able to get a hall for him to speak and an honorarium. We then set out to get an audience. It wasn't difficult, considering Stokely's stature. The place was packed, by the scheduled time for Stokely to speak. This all happened in a matter of five or six hours, as I remember.
The last time that I ever saw Mariam Makeba was when we bid the couple farewell in the parking lot behind the building in which Stokely spoke. The two were arm-in-arm, smiling, beneath an umbrella, as the weather had become drizzly. I will always remember that hectic but incredibly positive experience.
On the link below, is a piece that I saw on the Website of WDAS radio in Philadelphia that gives a short biography of Mariam's life. Her spirit will live on in many.
One Love,
G. Djata Bumpus
http://www.wdasfm.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104659?feed=104653&article=4561480
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