🔗 Share this article

“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally associated in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in 1959, she was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with the exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, she went to prison for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin learned when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would sing her music, such as the tunes, when she was a youngster, and dance to them in the living room.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at the venue in 1988.

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was constantly requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child Bongi died in childbirth in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the show (first staged in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “And we gather as these other selves of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on stage. Her choreography incorporates various forms of movement she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this work. “We see dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and instances that resonate. That’s what I admire about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, 22-24 October