Today for the first time Google has posted an International Google Doodle for a South African, paying tribute with its doodle to Mamma Africa’s “Miriam Makeba” on her 81st birthday internationally.
The late singer and civil rights campaigner, Miriam Makeba born in Johannesburg on March 4, 1932, became popular when she left for United States with South African group the Manhattan Brothers in 1959.
Mama African well known to be a civil activist against her home country’s government was a close friend to former South African President Nelson Mandela. The govt had cancelled her passport to prevent her returning after she participated in Come Back, Africa, an anti-apartheid documentary.
Better known for world music, Mama African returned to her home town after the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990.
The first African woman to address the United Nations was the first black South African woman who received a Grammy Award as a Singer, famous for her songs like “Pata Pata” in 1965.
She was married four times, trumpeter Hugh Masekela her first husband and other one was Black Panther Stokely Carmichael, the most controversial activist of the American Black Panther movement.
Faming with her iconic gowns and hairstyles, Mama African died in 2008 aged 76 in Castel Volturno in Italy.
