1959: Number 17 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of world and folk music
The feisty township singer Miriam Makeba was already a star in her native South Africa when she played a brief cameo in a controversial US anti-apartheid film called Come Back, Africa. The docudrama was covertly filmed by the American director Lionel Rogosin under the noses of hostile authorities before being smuggled abroad, where it served as an early document of the iniquities of apartheid.
Makeba was both victim and beneficiary of this clandestine film. Furious South African authorities revoked her passport, forcing her to seek asylum in the US, where Makeba quickly became a huge celebrity. She appeared on the Steve Allen show in November 1959, performed for the likes of Duke Ellington and Miles Davis at the Village Vanguard, hobnobbed with Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte and Sammy Davis Jr and was even presented to President Kennedy in 1962.
Her friends soon followed her out of the country. Makeba's on-off boyfriend Hugh Masekela joined her township-themed touring musical, King Kong, as did pianist Dollar Brand. Before long, most of SA's thriving jazz scene, including the Blue Notes, would all settle in Britain or the US, bringing a unique musical culture to the world and leading the fight against apartheid in exile.
emma watson janet jackson willie nelson rihanna willow smith
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