Today Google is honoring a famous South African with its Doodle. Miriam Makeba (also known as Mama Afrika) is being featured by them today. She was a Grammy Award-winning singer and civil rights activist. She would have been 81 years old today.
Miriam Makeba was born on the 4th of March 1932 in Johannesburg. She started recording albums with groups like the Manhattan Brothers and the Skylarks in the 1950s. She released her first single (“Pata Pata”) in 1956 and became well known in South Africa because of it. In 1960 she became one of the first people to popularize African music in the United States and around the world. She voiced her opinion against the Apartheid system in South Africa in a documentary film and as a result her passport was revoked in 1960 and her right to return and South African citizenship in 1963. Makeba only returned to South Africa in 1990.
During her career that spanned more than 50 years, Miriam Makeba released more than 20 studio albums, 5 Live Albums, 3 EPs and 15 singles. She also ventured into acting while she was in exile in the United States. She appeared in numerous films and in episodes of The Cosby Show (in 1991) and Veronica Mars (in 2004). She recorded and toured with many popular artists, such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela. She also did a lot of charity work when she made her way back to South Africa.
Miriam Makeba died of a heart-attack in 2008 after performing in a concert in Italy organized to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the region of Campania.
It’s great to see that Google is honoring a South African on their Doodle today. I’m pretty sure that many people feel proudly South African because of this. Share this article with your friends on Facebook and Twitter if you are feeling patriotic today. Remember: Sharing is Caring.
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