‘Pata, Pata’ From that point, Makeba stood out for her distinctive clicking sounds, which she used to punctuate songs in her native Xhosa language. She hit an all-time low in 1985 when Bongi, her only daughter, died at the age of 36 from complications from a miscarriage.

Heart attack
Miriam Makeba/Cause of death

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African singer Miriam Makeba, one of Africa’s best known voices and a champion of the fight against apartheid during three decades in exile, has died of a heart attack after a concert in Italy. She was 76.

Deceased (1932–2008)
Miriam Makeba/Living or Deceased

November 9, 2008
Miriam Makeba/Date of death

Childbirth
Bongi Makeba/Cause of death
She died aged 34 in 1985 of complications following childbirth and was buried in Conakry, Guinea, where her mother had moved after her 1968 marriage to Stokely Carmichael.

Stokely Carmichaelm. 1968–1978
Hugh Masekelam. 1964–1966Sonny Pilaym. 1959–1959
Miriam Makeba/Spouse

Castel Volturno, Italy
Miriam Makeba/Place of death

Miriam Makeba: Singer banned from her native South Africa for fighting apartheid.

She died aged 34 in 1985 of complications following childbirth and was buried in Conakry, Guinea, where her mother had moved after her 1968 marriage to Stokely Carmichael.

Miriam Makeba was a South African singer, daughter, mother, and an antiapartheid activist. After she was exiled from South Africa in 1960, she used her success to shine a light on the ugly truths of apartheid government. She utilised her voice to sing political songs and deliver two speeches at the United Nations.

Although the couple divorced two years later, they maintained a close professional relationship. In 1965 she and Belafonte won a Grammy Award for best folk recording for their album An Evening with Belafonte/Makeba.

Remembering Miriam Makeba, ‘Mama Africa’ South African singer and activist Miriam Makeba died Sunday at age 76. In a letter of tribute, Nelson Mandela said, “Her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.” Talk of the Nation remembers her with a 1988 recording of Mosadi Ku Rima.

Widely known as “Mama Africa,” Ms. Makeba was a prominent exiled opponent of apartheid since the South African authorities revoked her passport in 1960 and refused to allow her to return after she traveled abroad. She was prevented from attending her mother’s funeral after touring in the United States.

Miriam Zenzi Makeba was born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932, the daughter of a Swazi mother and a father from the Xhosa people, who live mainly in the eastern Cape region of South Africa.