Monday, November 10, 2008

Miriam Makeba, Mama Africa, dies



May flights of drumming and dancing angels sing her to her rest!

"She was a mother to our struggle," Mandela said in a statement. "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile which she felt for 31 long years. Her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in us."

Sunday night's concert was to support Robert Saviano, the Italian author who has lived in hiding since publishing Gomorrah, a best-selling expose of the Camorra gangsters who, among many other crimes, are blamed for killing six African immigrants in Castel Volturno in September.

Makeba's family, noting in a statement that she had performed one of her greatest hits, Pata Pata - Xhosa for Touch, Touch - shortly before collapsing, said: "Whilst this great lady was alive she would say: 'I will sing until the last day of my life'."

--Guardian

h/t to google headlines
--the BB

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