Honoring Mama Africa: A Journey of a Courageous Singer Portrayed in a Daring Dance Drama

“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” explains the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable story and impact inspire the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in the year, Makeba was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, she was incarcerated for six months, bringing her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the home.

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

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as learning of her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the era), she found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl died in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the show (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, she highlights threads of her life story like memories, and references more generally to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Her choreography includes multiple styles of dance she has learned over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (She passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire young people to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then sing a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to take the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that hit. This is what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in London, 22-24 October