Mama Africa

South Africa • 2011 • 90m

Story

South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba was the first African to win a Grammy. She sang for John F. Kennedy and Marlon Brando. She performed with Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte and Dizzy Gillespie. She married five times, including legendary South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela and activist Stokely Carmichael, who popularised the phrase “Black power.” She pleaded in the United Nations for sanctions against Apartheid.

But she paid a high price for her beliefs. She had her South African citizenship revoked after appearing in an anti-Apartheid documentary, Come Back, Africa. After marrying Stokely, she was effectively cancelled by mainstream America, with the couple moving to Guinea.

This is her story.

Why watch?

• Audience Award, Berlin

“Riveting subject matter, terrific music and engaging interviewees.”
Jonathan Romney, Screen International

Did you know?

Mama Africa was the idea of South African co-screenwriter and co-producer Don Edkins, who was developing it with Makeba when she died in 2008, at 76.

Edkins was also behind the Why Democracy? anthology, which included the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side.