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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states Alesandra Seutin. Known as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a young person sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. Her rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, the performance, set for its British debut.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in the year, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with the exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often managed by a host. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, she went to prison for six months, taking her baby with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the things Seutin learned when studying Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba sings at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), she found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child Bongi died in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” states the choreographer.

Development and Themes

These reflections contributed to the making of the production (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin highlights threads of her life story like memories, and nods more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “And we gather as these alter egos of personas linked with the icon to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Her dance composition incorporates various forms 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 … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they are, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “But she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to take the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe movement and listen to melodies, an element of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that hit. That’s what I admire about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a manner that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

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