Bibliographic Guide to Miriam Makeba's Career in Guinea (1968

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Bibliographic guide to Miriam Makeba’s career in Guinea (1968-1986) Yair Hashachar Department of Musicology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem European Research Council project “APARTHEID-STOPS”

This short piece is intended to serve as an introductory bibliographic guide to researchers interested in the career of South African singer Miriam Makeba with a special emphasis on her sojourn in Guinea. I am writing it with the Guinean reader in mind, and for that reason most the primary sources are available in the Guinean National Archives, where I worked during two research trips in November 2016 and January 2018. My thanks are sent to the archive staff led by director Seydouba Cissé, for their immense help. My research was supported by a European Research Council project “Aparheid-Stops”, directed by Prof. Louise Bethlehem (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel).1 Known to the world as Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba (1932-2008) was the first African singer to raise to fame internationally, and until this day few African artists managed to gain similar worldwide recognition (Fela Kuti and Manu Dibango are two others that come to mind, but Makeba preceded them). In many senses, Makeba became a model and a trailblazer for future generations of African artists, attempted to make it in the European and American music industries. At the same time, and besides her commercial success, Makeba came to be identified with political causes, namely, the anti-apartheid struggle, the pan-African movement, and the American civil rights movements. Thus, she also served as an example for many politically-engaged artists in the African world and elsewhere. A portrayal of Makeba’s upbringing in South Africa during the early days of apartheid appears in her two autobiographies Makeba: My Story (co-authored with James Hall) and Makeba: the Miriam Makeba Story (co-authored with Nomsa Nwamuka), published in 1989 and 2004 respectively.2 These sources, while not academic works, are important for they

1 Under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/ 2007-2013) / ERC Grant Agreement no. 615564. 2 Makeba, Miriam, and James Hall. Makeba: My Story. New York, N.Y.: New American Library, 1989. Makeba, Miriam, and Nomsa Mwamuka. Makeba: The Miriam Makeba Story. Johannesburg, South Africa: STE Publishers, 2004. 2 25.10.2018 reveal the artist’s own constructions (together with her co-authors) of her life narrative and events. Academic works on South African urban music at that time is also highly relevant to contextualize the social and musical environment from which Makeba emanated. The classic book on the subject is David Coplan’s In Township Tonight, but see also books by Veit Erlmann, Gwen Ansell and Christopher Ballantine.3 Another fruitful direction would be to compare Makeba’s life story with that of other South African musicians of the same cohort, such as Chris McGregor and Sathima Bea Benjamin.4 Of particular interest is the biography of jazz trumpeter Hugh Maskela who was Makeba’s husband and close friend.5 The career of the two intersected numerous times, for example, when both lived in New York and were active in its music scene and around the concert that accompanied the boxing match between Muhamad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire, 1974. The book shed light on these events among others. Ron Levi’s articles further explores Masekela’s transnational itineraries, particularly in respect to the concert in Zaire read against the backdrop of Cold War divisions, black power and pan-Africanism.6 In recent years, Makeba’s own career in the US received growing academic attention from different disciplinary perspectives. Articles by April Sizemore-Barber and Tyler Fleming explored the reception of Makeba among US audiences where she served, to use Sizemore- Barber words, as a “sonic stand-in for the continent of Africa”.7 Other relevant sources for Makeba’s career in the US are Ruth Feldstein’s chapter in her book How it Feels to be Free,

3 Ansell, Gwen. Soweto Blues: Jazz, Popular Music, and Politics in South Africa. New York: Continuum, 2005. Ballantine, Christopher John. Marabi Nights: Jazz, “Race” and Society in Early Apartheid South African. New ed. Scottsville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2012. Coplan, David B. In Township Tonight!: South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre. 2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Erlmann, Veit. Nightsong: Performance, Power, and Practice in South Africa. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. 4 McGregor, Maxine. Chris McGregor and the Brotherhood of Breath: My Life with a South African Jazz Pioneer. Bamberger Books, 1995. Muller, Carol Ann, and Sathima Bea Benjamin. Musical Echoes: South African Women Thinking in Jazz. Durham: Duke University Press, 2011. 5 Masekela, Hugh, and D. Michael Cheers. Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela. New York: Crown Publishers, 2004. 6 Levi, Ron. “The Musical Diplomacy of a Landless Ambassador: Hugh Masekela between Monterey ’67 and Zaire ’74.” Interventions, July 27, 2018, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2018.1487791. “Zaire ’74: Politicising the Sound Event.” Social Dynamics 43, no. 2 (May 4, 2017): 184–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2017.1364469. 7 Fleming, Tyler. “A Marriage of Inconvenience: Miriam Makeba’s Relationship with Stokely Carmichael and Her Music Career in the United States.” Safundi 17, no. 3 (July 2, 2016): 312–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533171.2016.1176720. Sizemore-Barber, April. “The Voice of (Which?) Africa: Miriam Makeba in America.” Safundi 13, no. 3–4 (July 2012): 251–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533171.2012.715416. 3 25.10.2018 that deals with female artists during the Civil Rights-era in the US,8 as well as two PhD dissertations written by Frankie Nicole Weaver and Tanisha Ford that while not exclusively on Makeba devote substantial sections to the singer.9 Whereas Weaver examines the role of Makeba in the context of South African-American artistic transnational networks of anti- aparhteid struggle, Ford examines Makeba’s contribution to American soul culture, mainly in terms of fashion, styling and visual culture. The same period saw Makeba appearing two times in front of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, in 1963 and 1964. Her testimonies are available through the UN archive.10 These appearances also anticipate her more prolonged connection with Guinea, since the committee was chaired at that time by Guinea representative Diallo Telli.11 Lastly, another important sources for understanding Makeba’s career in the US is the autobiography of calypso singer Harry Belafonte who was Makeba’s manager since her arrival to the US.12 The book provides an interesting perspective on the challenges and tensions that accompanied Makeba’s entrance to the American music industry. The book is also relevant for understanding Makeba’s “return” to Africa since it was Belfonte who opened important doors for Makeba in the pan-African politics. Makeba’s Guinean chapter started with her one-month visit to the country in 1967 following an invitation from president Ahmed Sékou Touré. The visit, which was coincided with the quinzaine artistique et culturel national, was reported in the Guinean national newspaper Horoya.13 As for academic works, besides sporadic references in the sources mentioned above as well as short reference in Graeme Counsel’s book14) that only articles that deal directly with the Guinea chapter of Makeba are the ones by Louise Bethlehem and

8Feldstein, Ruth. How It Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 9Ford, Tanisha C. “Soul Generation: Radical Fashion, Beauty, and the Transnational Black Liberation Movement, 1954-1980.” Ph.d, Indiana University, 2011. Weaver, Frankie Nicole. “Art Against Apartheid: American And South African Cultural Activism And Networks Of Solidarity.” PhD diss., State University of New York, Buffalo, 2013. 10 Part of Makeba’s speech in 1963 is available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWP5mBJ4HWs 11 Subsequently Guinea chaired the committee two more times, with Achkar Marof (1964-1968) and Jean- Martin Cissé (1975-1976) 12 Belafonte, Harry, and Michael Shnayerson. My Song: A Memoir of Art, Race, and Defiance. New York: Vintage Books, 2012. 13 “La Grande Chanteuse Myriam Makéba a Quitté Conakry.” Horoya, October 18, 1967. “Le Secrétaire Général Du Parti.” Horoya, October 7, 1967. “Miriam Makeba Est Arrivée à Conakry.” Horoya, September 19, 1967. 14 Counsel, Graeme. Mande Popular Music and Cultural Policies in West Africa: Griots and Government Policy since Independence. Saabrucken: VDM Verlag, 2009. 4 25.10.2018

Yair Hashachar.15 In 1968, a year after her initial visit, Makeba relocated to Guinea, this time for a long period of time (she stayed in the country until around 1986). The background for her relocation is the deterioration of her career in the US following her marriage to African- American radical Civil Rights activist Stokely Carmichael (AKA Kwame Ture). For more information on the their marriage, see Fleming’s article, as well as in Carmichael’s biography by Peniel E. Joseph.16 Makeba’s stay in Guinea yielded to greater presence in the Guinea media and Horoya covered extensively her concerts in the Guinean quinzaines and elsewhere.17 The fact that she decided to play with a Guinean – the Quintette Guinéene, whose musicians were recruited from the national orchestra Balla et ses Balladin – elicited great interest from the Guinea media and this act was a sign for Makeba’s positive integration into the Guinean national culture. During her days in Guinea Makeba recorded most of her albums for Syliphone, the national recoding label, some of which were reviewed in Horoya.18 In addition, Makeba and the Quintette toured extensively abroad and sometimes Horoya brought to the Guinean readers echoes from local press in these countries.19 While for the major part journalistic coverage on Makeba dealt with her musical activity, her 1975 address before the UN general assembly – where she represented Guinea alongside its permanent delegate Jean-Martin Cissé - was fully replicated in Horoya.20 Lastly, Makeba participated in three important pan-African festivals: Algiers 1969, Tunis 1973 and Lagos 1977. The 1969 Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers was of special importance to Guinea, since the country won the gold medal for its accumulating achievements in the various artistic

15 Bethlehem, Louise. “‘Miriam’s Place’: South African Jazz, Conviviality and Exile.” Social Dynamics 43, no. 2 (May 4, 2017): 243–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2017.1364464. ———. “Restless Itineraries: Antiapartheid Expressive Culture and Transnational Historiography.” Social Text 36, no. 3 (September 1, 2018): 47–69. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-6917766. Hashachar, Yair. “Guinea Unbound: Performing Pan-African Cultural Citizenship Between Algiers 1969 and the Guinean National Festivals.” Interventions, August 17, 2018, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2018.1508932. ———. “Playing the Backbeat in Conakry: Miriam Makeba and the Cultural Politics of Sékou Touré’s Guinea, 1968–1986.” Social Dynamics 43, no. 2 (2017): 259–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533952.2017.1364467. 16 Joseph, Peniel E. Stokely: A Life. New York: Basic Civitas, a member of the Perseus Book Club, 2014. 17 See for example: Cissé, I, and M Touré. “Le Festival Culturel National Au Jour Le Jour.” Horoya Hebdo, March 27, 1970. “Spectacles au Palais du Peuple.” Horoya, March 17, 1973. “Succès de L´Ensemble Myriam Makeba à Monrovia.” Horoya, January 1973. 18 “Vie Culturelle: Myriam Makeba - Amazone Sud-Africaine, Kouyate Sory Kandia - Ambassadeur de La Chanson Africaine.” Horoya, August 7, 1970. 19 “Miriam Makeba Vue Par La Presse Française.” Horoya, August 24, 1974. 20 “30è Session Assemblée Générale O.N.U.” Horoya, January 3, 1976. 5 25.10.2018 contests. Reports on this festival were published in Horoya.21 Makeba can be seen in William Klein’s film of the festival performing with Bembeya Jazz National’s lead guitarist Sékou “Bembeya” Diabaté few months before she started performing with her regular Guinean group.22 Makeba’s own words on topics such as trans-Atlantic cultural exchanges and pan-Africanism, as well as her stay in Guinea appeared in an interview from the festival bulletin.23 Additional sources concern with the festival from the Guinean perspective are two books from the Révolution Démocratique Africaine of the PDG: the first is Premier Festival Culturel Pan-Africain d’Alger (volume 30) which includes Ahmed Sékou Touré and the Guinean delegation’s addresses to the festival as well as two ideological pieces on African art and the revolutionary artist; the second is La revolution et la culture (volume 35), that reprints the manifesto of the symposium in Algiers, alongside polemic article against the négritude movement, and other writings on culture.24 Makeba also performed in the Pan-African Youth Festival in Tunisia in 1974, which was smaller than the other pan-African festivals but continued the ideological line promulgated in Algiers. Makeba’s full concert in the amphitheater in Carthage together with her quintette is available online, and includes a unique performance of the song Africa/Ifriqyia sung by Makeba in Arabic to the amazed audience.25 Lastly, Makeba’s participation in the the 1977 Pan-African Festival in Lagos alongside Bembeya Jazz National, Boiro Band, Les Amazones and other Guinean artists was covered at length in Horoya.26 It is worth mentioning other, perhaps less conventional, type of sources. The first is in the form of Makeba’s album covers. Some of these covers, most of which are housed at

21 “Alger et l’afrique.” Horoya Hebdo, August 2, 1969. Guinea National Archives. “La Jeunesse de La Révolution Démocratique Africiane Au Rendez-Vous d’Alger.” Horoya Hebdo, July 26, 1969. Guinea National Archives. “L’Afrique a Alger.” Horoya Hebdo, July 19, 1969 “Nos Messagers de l’art et de La Culture Sont Revenus d’alger.” Horoya Hebdo, August 23, 1969. Guinea National Archives. 22 Klein, William. Festival Panafricain d’Alger, 1969. According to Diawara (1992), another film shot in the festival was made by Beninoise-Guinean film director Gilbert Minot. I couldn’t trace the film. 23Algiers 1969 - News Bulletin, 1st Pan-African Cultural Festival, vol. 3 (Algiers: Organization of African Unity, 1969). 24 PDG (Parti Démocratique de Guinée), La Révolution et La Culture, vol. 35, Révolution Démocratique Africaine (Conakry: Imprimerie National Patrice Lumumba, 1970); PDG (Parti Démocratique de Guinée), Premier Festival Culturel Panafricain d’alger, vol. 30, Révolution Démocratique Africaine (Conakry: Imprimerie National Patrice Lumumba, 1969). ,Miriam Makeba --- Carthage 1969 1ere Présentation, accessed October 14, 2018 ,ﻣﻨﺘﺪى ﺳﻤﺎﻋﻲ sama3y Forum 25 --- Miriam Makeba ,ﻣﻨﺘﺪى ﺳﻤﺎﻋﻲ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLusphgpNLg&t=1346s; sama3y Forum Carthage 1969 2 Eme Présentation, accessed October 14, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlNboh44xO4&t=994s. 26 “Une Victoire à La Gloire Du Trentenaire Du P.D.G,” Horoya, March 5, 1977. 6 25.10.2018 the archive located at the basement of the Radio Télévison Guinée (RTG) headquarters, contain informative liner notes that provide details on the songs, musicians as well as on the context of their production. These liner notes were written by some of the top Guinean journalists at that time: Ibrahima Khalil Diaré (until 1974) and afterwards by radio broadcaster and journalist Justin Morel Jr., who wrote extensively on Guinean music, see also his co-authored book on Bembeya Jazz National together with Souleymane Keite.27 Other sources of interest are the songs themselves. Makeba’s recorded repertoire during her years in Guinea years was vast and diverse, and included renditions of her well-known South African songs but also songs in other African languages such as Lingala (a Congolese language), KiSwahili, as well as songs in languages such as Arabic, French, Spanish and English. However, of most relevance to Guinea are her songs in Guinean languages. Makeba recorded songs in Susu (“Djuinguira”), Maninkaka (“Touré Barika”, “Sékou Famake”, and “Maloumayé”) and Fulani (“Maobé Guinée”) among others. These songs are crucial to understand the aesthetic means through which she engaged and interacted with the Guinean people and their political institutions. These songs, as well as a live recording of an entire concert taken place in 1973 together with trumpeter Hugh Masekela, are available online as part of a digitization project that underwent by Australian musicologist Graeme Counsel and funded by the British Library’s Endangered Archives Project.28 Lastly, Makeba can be seen performing the song “Maobé Guinée” in the film Hirde Dyama, a Guinean-East German co-production, directed by Moussa Kémoko Diakité. 29 Her performance of “Maloumayé” presumably during the national festival of 1973 is also available online, although the details of production are not clear.30 Another film of interests is a Swiss documentary made in 1981 in Guinea and includes interviews with Makeba in her home in Dalaba and her associates.31 Lastly, further information on the singer is stored in the minds of Guineans who worked, played and got to know Makeba. Luckily videos of interviews with Quintette’s

27 Justin Morel and Souleymane Keita, Bembeya Jazz National: Cinquante Ans Après, La Légende Continue (Paris: Harmattan, 2011). 28 To learn more about the project: ; To access the songs, use the search engine in the following website: https://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Syliphone-record-label-collection 29 Moussa Kémoko Kémoko Diakité and Gerhard Jentsch, Hirde Dyama, 35mm, Documentary (Progress Film- Verleih, 1970). Available online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl_0SxrnMxU&t=526s 30 Miriam Makeba with the Quintette Guineen, accessed October 22, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K72Yy-BA5VE. 31 The film is available online at: http://rtspro.ch/rts/archive/view-archive/archiveid/16501 7 25.10.2018 musicians – Papa Kouyaté and the late Kemo Kouyaté – are available online and provide invaluable information.32 To conclude, Makeba’s presence in Guinea yielded a great coverage and her involvement with Guinean culture and Africa at large is far from being completely investigated. It is plausible that as years go by new sources will be exposed and will provide further information on this important chapter in the history of African popular music.

32 A TOUT COEUR AVEC KEMO KOUYATE Partie 1, accessed October 22, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgtbg7f5f_E; Papa Kouyate, accessed October 22, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMybtrsmx0s&t=1784s.