🔗 Share this article

“Discussing about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a sovereign,” states Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba also spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This rich story and impact inspire Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, especially her story of exile: after relocating to the city in 1959, she was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the United States after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with a fabulous vocalist the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the penalty, she was incarcerated for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company Vocab Dance. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a youngster, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the making of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and nods more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not overt in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography includes multiple styles of movement she has learned over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the singer. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would motivate the youth to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then sing a beautiful song.” She aimed to adopt the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe dancing and hear melodies, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that hit. That’s what I admire about her. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in the city, 22-24 October