Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to the United States and achieving fame there.
When she tried to return to South Africa in 1960 for her mother's
funeral, she discovered that her South African passport had been
cancelled. She signed with RCA Victor and released
Miriam Makeba, her first U.S. studio album, in 1960. In 1962, Makeba and Belafonte sang at John F. Kennedy's birthday party at Madison Square Garden,
but Makeba did not go to the aftershow party because she was ill.
President Kennedy insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to
pick her up and she met the President of the United States. In 1963, Makeba released her second studio album for RCA,
The World of Miriam Makeba. An early example of world music, the album peaked at number eighty-six on the Billboard 200.
Later that year, after testifying against apartheid before the United
Nations, her South African citizenship and her right to return to the
country were revoked. She was a woman without a country, but the world came to her aid, and Guinea, Belgium and Ghana issued her international passports, and she became, in effect, a citizen of the world In her life, she held nine passports, and was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries.
In 1964, Makeba and Masekela were married, divorcing two years later.
In 1966, Makeba received the Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording together with Harry Belafonte for
An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba.
The album dealt with the political plight of black South Africans under
apartheid, and it was one of the first American albums to present
traditional Zulu, Sotho and Swahili songs in an authentic setting From the time of her New York debut at the Village Vanguard,
her fame and reputation grew. She released many of her most famous hits
in the United States, including "The Click Song" ("Qongqothwane" in Xhosa) and "Malaika".
Time called her the "most exciting new singing talent to appear in many years," and
Newsweek compared her voice to "the smoky tones and delicate phrasing" of Ella Fitzgerald and the "intimate warmth" of Frank Sinatra.
Despite the success that made her a star in the U.S., she wore no
makeup and refused to curl her hair for shows, thus establishing a style
that would come to be known internationally as the "Afro look". In 1967, more than ten years after she wrote the song, the single "Pata Pata" was released in the United States and became a worldwide hit.
[5]
I’d already lived in exile for 10 years, and the world is free, even
if some of the countries in it aren’t, so I packed my bags and left.
—Miriam Makeba
Her marriage to Trinidad-born civil rights activist, Black Panther, and Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled.
As a result, the couple moved to Guinea, her home for the next 15 years, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife, Andrée.
] Makeba was appointed Guinea's official delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.
She also separated from Carmichael in 1973 and continued to perform
primarily in Africa, Europe and Asia, but not in the United States,
where a de facto boycott was in effect. Makeba was one of the entertainers at the 1974 Rumble in the Jungle match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in Zaïre.
She addressed the United Nations General Assembly for the second time in 1975. She divorced Carmichael in 1978 and married an airline executive in 1980.
In those years, when I came to the States, people were always asking
me why I didn't sing anymore. I'd tell them, ‘I sing all around the
world—Asia, Africa, Europe—but if you don't sing in the US, then you
haven’t really made it.’ That's why I'll always be grateful to Paul
Simon. He allowed me to bring my music back to my friends in this
country.
—Miriam Makeba
After the death of her daughter Bongi in 1985, she decided to move to Brussels. In the following year, Hugh Masekela introduced Makeba to Paul Simon, and a few months later she embarked on the very successful
Graceland Tour, which was documented on music video.
Two concerts held in Harare, Zimbabwe, were filmed in 1987 for release as
Graceland: The African Concert. After touring the world with Simon, Warner Bros. Records signed Makeba and she released
Sangoma ("Healer"), an a cappella album of healing chants named in honour of her mother who was an "isangoma" ("a healer"). Shortly thereafter, her autobiography
Makeba: My Story
was published and subsequently translated from English into other
languages including German, French, Dutch, Italian and Spanish.
She took part in the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute, a popular-music concert staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London, and broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million.
Also referred to as Freedomfest, Free Nelson Mandela Concert, and Mandela Day, the event called forandela's release.
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