The South African musical legend Miriam Makeba collapsed on stage on Sunday after singing Pata Pata, one of her most famous hits. A clinic near the southern Italian city of Naples said Makeba died early on Monday morning after a heart attack. She was 76.

She was in the Italian town of Caserta taking part in a benefit concert to support writer Roberto Saviano and his battle against the Camorra, a Mafia organisation in southern Italy. It was a symbolic and fitting end for the South African singer who used music as a weapon in her lifelong battle against injustice.

Enjoying herself
"I am Miriam Makeba and I am 76-years-old". That was how the singer introduced herself to the packed crowd in Amsterdam's Paradiso last Friday. Nel ten Hertog was one of the lucky people who had managed to get a ticket for what turned out to be one of Miriam Makeba's last concerts. Ms Hertog says, "She was really enjoying herself and even danced a bit". The last number was Pata Pata, and Ms Hertog says, "The crowd went absolutely wild. Everybody was dancing and waving their arms in the air".

Pata Pata, which means 'walk with me', was the number that thrust Makeba into the limelight and brought her global fame in the 1960s. However, her superstar status did not bring her wealth; the record company bosses owned the rights to her songs and she was not receiving any royalties. 

Banned
She first gained international recognition in 1959 during a tour in the US and won further acclaim after starring in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa, also released in 1959. When she tried to fly back to South Africa for her mother's funeral the following year, she discovered that her passport had been revoked. She was to spend the next 31 years in exile.

In 1966 she won a Grammy award, the first African woman to do so, for her collaboration with Harry Belafonte on An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under apartheid. It was partly due to her relationship to Belafonte that she became such a star in the United States. She performed at President John F. Kennedy's birthday party in 1962.

She appeared on Paul Simon's Graceland tour in 1987 and in 1992, played a major role in the film Sarafina! Miriam Makeba made four appearances at the UN General assembly, in 1963, 1964, 1975 and 1976, to speak out against apartheid.

Makeba spent 10 of her 31 years in exile in the United States, but her 1968 marriage to Stokely Carmichael, the leader of the Black Panthers, shocked America and concerts and contracts were cancelled. The couple moved to Guinea in 1969.

Grandmothers
In 1990, then-South African President Nelson Mandela convinced Mama Africa to return home. Dutch actress and singer Gerda Havertong says that despite the abolition of apartheid, Miriam Makeba was still an activist. Last week, Havertong met the African superstar when she was performing at a benefit concert for WorldGranny, an organisation that supports grandmothers who are caring for their grandchildren. According to Havertong, who is also an ambassador for WorldGranny, Makeba was a natural choice for the benefit concert as, "she's one of the grandmothers herself". In 1985, her daughter Bongi died giving birth. Havertong continues, "Makeba was making lots of jokes. She said we should have invited the younger generation to come and perform for the grandmothers".

A successor to Miriam Makeba has not yet appeared. Until the day she died, she trained a number of poor teenage girls in Johannesburg. Who knows, maybe the new voice of Africa is among Mama Africa's girls.

* additional material by J R I Carver