🔗 Share this article

“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba also associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. This remarkable story and impact inspire the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, particularly her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in 1959, she was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with the exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for six months, taking her baby with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the things the choreographer learned when studying her story. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as reading about 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 1950s), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” says Seutin.

Development and Themes

These reflections went into the making of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of dance she has learned over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (She passed away in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate the youth to stand for what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She aimed to adopt the similar method in this production. “We see movement and hear beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that resonate. This is what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. But she did it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is at the city, 22-24 October