Remembering Mama Africa: The Journey of a Fearless Artist Portrayed in a Bold Theatrical Performance

“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” remarks the choreographer. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she eventually served as an envoy for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its British debut.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in 1959, she was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with the exceptional South African singer the performer leading reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, often presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching her story. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Her father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was always asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), she discovered that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the production (first staged in the city in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these other selves of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on the platform. Her choreography includes various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about the legend? “I think she would inspire young people to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe movement and hear beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that hit. This is what I admire about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. But she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, the dates