Remembering Mama Africa: The Struggle of a Courageous Artist Told in a Daring Theatrical Performance
“Discussing about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba also associated in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in the city, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.
The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration
The show combines movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes Makeba’s history, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in 1959, she was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with the exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre bringing her music to vibrant life.
Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.
In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, she was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the things the choreographer learned when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when they met in the city after a performance. Her father is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.
Songs of freedom … the artist performs at the venue in the year.
A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her exile she could not be present at her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states the choreographer.
Development and Themes
These reflections contributed to the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she highlights threads of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more broadly to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”
Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.
In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates various forms of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.
Honoring strength … the creator.
She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (She passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “But she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” She aimed to take the similar method in this production. “We see movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that hit. This is what I respect about her. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”
Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, 22-24 October
