Remembering Mama Africa: The Struggle of a Fearless Artist Portrayed in a Bold Theatrical Performance

“Discussing about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she eventually served as an envoy for Ghana, then Guinea’s official delegate to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, particularly her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in the year, she was barred from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the US after marrying activist her spouse. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with the fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, she was incarcerated for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the things Seutin discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

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

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she remembers. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), Seutin found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says Seutin.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the piece was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not overt in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to the icon to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography includes various forms of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (She passed away in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “I think she would inspire the youth to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this production. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. This is what I admire about her. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she did it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at the city, 22-24 October