Paul Simon took a lot of heat for Graceland (undeserved I thought). It was a wonderful album, showcasing some of South Africa's and Zimbabwe's finest pop talents. Miriam Makeba joined him for a concert in Harare, but it seems Harry Belafonte still holds a grudge against Simon. I think it is more professional jealousy, and maybe even personal jealousy in the case of Makeba, than political reasons. But, if you can find it, maddie, South African Jazz and Jive is a wonderful compilation of 1950's South African music, with Makeba appearing on it with the famous Spokes Mashiane, distributed by Stern music. Then there is Abdullah Ibrahim, one of my personal favorites.
I have to disagree with you here, alas. And also ask a few questions: Why did Simon take a lot of heat for Graceland? See, pop singers of that scope were not on my radar; they were just background. You will probably understand in a minute as to why. I was already discussing African music with the Africans.
"Miriam Makeba joined him for a concert in Harare, but it seems Harry Belafonte still holds a grudge against Simon. I think it is more professional jealousy, and maybe even personal jealousy in the case of Makeba, than political reasons." What professional jealousy? What personal jealousy? In the years, it was pretty definitely political reason.
I have made a few notes to refresh my memory of what we were going through in those years, so I looked through her biographical material because I'd already heard Makeba sing and then heard her again in political discussion when she traveled with her husband on the lecture circuit and I am not speaking of Masekela but Stokely Carmichael who was a real cutie . You've got to remember Miriam Makeba and I are of the same generation. If, Belafonte had any cause to cause jealousy, Stokely would have whopped his a_zzz! But possibly you meant Makeba had personal jealousy of Paul Simon? I don't think so, here's why, or did he take a turn for the worse after that and keep singing the same old songs?
Makeba like her mother was a "sangoma"(which I was referring to earlier when speaking of the West African musicians as griot, which has several connotations to the word but, in either case , griot or sangoma, these are ritual musicians or singers who effect healing). So, rather than find it, I was already familiar in the 1950s with South African Music. It would have been impossible to be on the American Jazz scene without knowing about it. Besides, being so, meant we were supportive of Stokely's civil rights position and the Black Panthers. It wasn't until 1969 that I saw Panthers being locally prosecuted like Africans. Up until then Stokely was on a par with Angela Davis, for getting his propers, but speaking politically with Makeba had something to do with it whereas Angela Davis was clearly speaking out against the Vietnam war and as the A number one student of Herbert Marcuse out at Santa Barbara was resolutely anti-Fascist; so, people, mostly white intelligentsia and artists swarmed to meet her at receptions that they sponsored at places available to them so they could have a chance to speak to her one on one. She absolutely radiated an enlightened power of intellectual health you might say.
But back to Miriam. In a nutshell, big nutshell but nevertheless:"she starred in the anti-apartheid documentary Come Back, Africa in 1959. When the Italian government invited her to the premier of the film at the Venice Film Festival, she decided not to return home. Her South African passport was revoked shortly afterwards.
Makeba then travelled to London where she met Harry Belafonte, who assisted her in gaining entry to and fame in the United States.Her marriage to Trinidadian civil rights activist and Black Panthers leader Stokely Carmichael in 1968 caused controversy in the United States, and her record deals and tours were cancelled. As a result of this, the couple moved to Guinea, where they became close with President Ahmed Sékou Touré and his wife. Makeba separated from Carmichael in 1973, and continued to perform primarily in Africa, South America and Europe. After the death of her only daughter Bongi Makeba in 1985, she moved to Brussels. She also served as a Guinean delegate to the United Nations, for which she won the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986.
In 2001 she was awarded the Gold Otto Hahn Peace Medal by the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin, "for outstanding services to peace and international understanding". "
I am not kidding, I actually inappropriately or not played African music back to Africans who were so resolutely colonial polite about it (unlike current Muslim adversaries who speak right up when they disagree with you about anything right from the bottom line) that I was no doubt an embarrassment to my husband. I would not have known at that time why Paul Simon might have been criticized by Africans politically, unless you draw the parallel of how non-white American musicians have been taken to the cleaners by the producers in the music industry. Considering that Patrice Lumumba was murdered immediately thereafter, there may be a reason for mixed reactions to Paul Simon's good will (you'd have to ask Mandela about that one).
I was late getting in here yesterday, e-mailing my sister in law after our brother-in-law had phoned her long distance to talk with her about an hour and a half in regard to her health. He just came back from his South African and Australian concert tour recently; so in fact he has been playing with African musicians,(as well as South American musicians hired) for going on just short of four decades. I have met so many of them back-stage in passing that it would be impossible to keep them straight which is why I e-mailed to ask my Japanese-American s-i-l if she had heard these you-tube selections, which I told her about, because she is the party-girl who never misses a concert no matter how far she has to travel and just keeps on partying if she has to stay up all night. Being a grandmother usually makes this possible. We call these occasions,"Family reunions".
