Pretoria - Miriam Makeba never got the respect and honour she deserved while she was still alive, legendary musician Abigail Kubeka said yesterday.
“There was no respect, no honouring and no thank you, and the people who celebrated her were those from overseas and in Africa, not here at home,” Kubeka said during the inter-generational dialogue at Unisa yesterday.
The event was aimed at commemorating the late music icon and to mark what would have been the 87th birthday of the world-renowned musician, peacemaker and activist commonly known as “Mama Africa”.
The dialogue was hosted by Unisa and the Institute for Dispute Resolution in Africa.
Music icons, among them Dr Jonas Gwangwa, Kubeka, award-winning writer Nomsa Mwamuka and decolonial curator Zingisa Nkosinkulu, engaged in the dialogue in her honour.
Kubeka said Makeba died a sad person because she never received any recognition, but was only labelled a Goodwill Ambassador.
“What does a Goodwill Ambassador even do? She wasn’t celebrated here; she was celebrated outside. I sometimes feel that the reason she wanted to be cremated and for her ashes to be scattered in the sea was because she felt no one cared or appreciated her in South Africa.
“She wanted to go back to those countries where they appreciated her and thought the only way of getting to them was to have her ashes in the sea so she could just flow into those countries,” Kubeka said.
She told those gathered that Makeba didn't know that there were commemorations held in her name because it never happened when she was still alive.
She said they would let bygones be exactly that. “We are going forward; we are wiser and we are starting afresh.”
Kubeka further said the commemoration was like rubbing salt in her wounds as she had just buried yet another friend and legendary musician Dorothy Masuka on Sunday.
She said: “Miriam was everything to me; she was a mother and a sister. She taught me everything I am today; from dressing up, the way I carry myself and the discipline. Just being who I am today is because of Miriam.”
Makeba was the one who asked her to join their singing group, a request which her family denied. “When I told my family I wanted to be a singer they told me I should leave their house if that was the career I wanted. So Miriam’s home became my home”
Gwangwa recalled going to America for the first time and being received by Makeba. He said he stayed at Makeba’s house until he, together with the late Hugh Masekela, found an apartment of their own. “Makeba cared for a lot of people. There were students who came from different parts of Africa and stayed with her. She always had someone she looked after. She loved her music because every time we chill, she would ask that we sing.”
The Pata-Pata hitmaker died after suffering a heart attack after collapsing on stage during a live performance in Italy at the age of 76 in 2008.