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Date of Birth
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04-March-1932
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Place of Birth
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Johannesburg
(Gauteng, South Africa)
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Nationality
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South Africa
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Also know as
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Makeba, Myriam, Myriam Makeba, Miriam Makebo, Mama Africa, Miriam Zenzi Makeba, Makeba, Miriam, Zenzile Miriam Makeba, Zensile Makeba Qgwashu Nguvama Yiketheli Nxgowa Bantana Balomzi Xa Ufnu Ubajabulisa Ubaphekeli Mbiza Yotshwala Sithi Xa Saku Qgiba Ukutja Sithathe Izitsha Sizi Khabe Singama Lawu Singama Qgwashu Singama Nqamla Nqgithi
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Profession
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Singer, Actor, Singer-songwriter
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Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a Grammy Award-winning South African singer and civil rights activist.
In the 1960s, she was the first artist from Africa to popularize African music around the world. She is best known for the song "Pata Pata", first recorded in 1957 and released in the U.S. in 1967. She recorded and toured with many popular artists, such as Harry Belafonte, Paul Simon, and her former husband Hugh Masekela.
Makeba campaigned against the South African system of apartheid. The South African government responded by revoking her passport in 1960 and her citizenship and right of return in 1963. As the apartheid system crumbled she returned home for the first time in 1990.
Makeba died of a heart attack on 9 November 2008 after performing in a concert in Italy organised to support writer Roberto Saviano in his stand against the Camorra, a mafia-like organisation local to the region of Campania.
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