Miriam Makeba

President Kennedy insisted on meeting her, so Belafonte sent a car to pick her up and she met the President of the United States. Read Less

Zenzile Miriam Makeba was born in Johannesburg on 4 March 1932. Her mother was a Swazi sangoma (traditional healer-herbalist). Her father, who died when she was six years old, was a Xhosa. When she was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested for selling umqombothi, an African homemade beer brewed from malt and cornmeal. Her mother was sentenced to a six-month prison term, so Miriam spent her first six months of life in jail. As a child, she sang in the choir of the Kilmerton Training Institute in Pretoria, a primary school that she attended for eight years.

At the age of eighteen, Makeba gave birth to her only child, Bongi Makeba, whose father was Makeba's first husband, James Kubay. Makeba was then diagnosed with breast cancer, and her husband left her shortly afterwards.

Her professional career began in the 1950s when she was featured in the South African jazz group the Manhattan Brothers, and appeared for the first time on a poster. She left the Manhattan Brothers to record with her all-woman group, The Skylarks, singing a blend of jazz and traditional melodies of South Africa. Read Less