A Journey to Listen to an Album from Every Single Country
6/198
Album: Miriam Makeba
Artist: Miriam Makeba
Year: 1960
Length: 34:42
Genre: World Music / African Music
Before I started this journey to listen to an album from every country, it all began when, one week, I decided to try and listen to albums from different country for the entirety of the week. It started off as something fun for myself but it wasn’t until I chose to listen to Miriam Makeba’s debut that I was inspired to do this as an actual project rather than something just for myself. I don’t quite know what it is about Miriam Makeba’s debut album that has put a spell on me, but it’s become one of those albums that I want other people to know about, that I want people to discover and listen to. I want to share this album with everyone and doing the Album World Tour felt like a great way for me to talk about it to everyone and hope that many others will check it out for themselves.
It’s also fitting that I would choose Miriam Makeba for South Africa since she is considered, not only one of the most important musical artists, but also one of the most important people to come out of South Africa (straight from the city of Johannesburg). She did so much to put not only her country of South Africa onto the map but also had western audiences paying attention more closely to Africa in general as a continent. Basically being seen as an ambassador of sorts, she was given the nickname of “Mama Africa” and was seen as an emblematic of the continent of Africa from the eyes of North Americans. She would also receive the monikers of “Empress of African Song” and “Queen of South African Music”. She would be the one to bring African music to western audiences and would even one of the artists to popularise the term “World Music” (a term she did not particularly enjoy as she felt it marginalised music from the “third world”). It cannot be understated how important she was when it came to bringing African music to Western audiences.
Along with that, she was also an important activist for her country during the times of Apartheid. Openly speaking out against it and vocalising these feelings through her music. She was one of the most visible people to stand up against it and spokesperson for black Africans, to the point that her country would refuse her entry into it. She would use her high profile to testify against apartheid in front of the UN. She became a symbol of the cruelty of Apartheid as many of her songs would get banned in South Africa, where they were eventually distributed in the underground away from the eyes of the government. According to Hugh Masekela (Another artist and an ex-husband of Miriam Makeba), “there [was] nobody in Africa who made the world more aware of what was happening in South Africa than Miriam Makeba”. Nelson Mandela would even send her praises saying, “her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.” There couldn’t be an artist more fitting to represent South Africa.
Her self-titled debut is something really special. It worked as a showcase of traditional African songs that would be exposed to American audiences. Most songs were sung in her home languages of Xhosa, Swahili and Sotho, with a handful of the English songs being covers of American classics to show she can do those just as well. It’s really the traditional songs that shine on this album with a mix of lullabies, the classic chant of “Mbube” (which would eventually be appropriated by an american band to make the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”) and her famous “The Click Song”, named so because American audiences could not pronounce the original title (something she prefaces the song with). There’s a beauty and grace to her voice that I find rare and even though you might not understand what she is singing, you can feel the sincerity and soul coming from her. She has a lot of love for these songs and it shows and that passion and heart radiates out creating a listening experience that is comforting and warm, like a large blanket enveloping you.
Although, one song off the album has left me baffled for years now. “One More Dance” is the penultimate song off the album and it’s a fascinating and curious song. One of the few sung in English, she sings about a husband whose health is failing and eventually dies. She sounds sad and evokes those emotions well. However, throughout the song a male vocalist sings along in a duet with her… but is laughing his ass off through the entire thing. I have done research and the closest I can find is this song is described as being about two cynical lovers… why this man is laughing about the failing health about this woman’s husband is beyond me and to this day has left me with so many questions. I would love to know the purpose of this duet but for now, it still remains a mystery.
This album left quite an impact on me the first time I heard it about six / seven years ago as I still find myself thinking about it and constantly feeling this desire to have it heard by everyone. It sits nicely in my top 100 favourite albums of all time and is just such a lovely album that is incredibly difficult to dislike. I genuinely do think everyone should listen to this album at least once in their lives and I hope when they do that they also feel the same warmth and comfort I did when I had first heard it.
Camila’s Thoughts: “I will definitely listen to this again in the future. I feel like I’m in a party in a grandma’s basement with lots of good food and so much love around.”
-Bosco
Bosco's Modern Life 