Honoring Mama Africa: A Struggle of a Courageous Artist Told in a Daring Dance Drama

“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” explains the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. Her rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines dance, live music, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in the year, she was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous vocalist the performer leading bringing her music to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, she went to prison for six months, bringing her infant with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the things Seutin discovered when researching her story. “So many stories!” says she, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Her parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the living room.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at the venue in the year.

A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her banishment she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Development and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the piece was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin pulls out elements of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. While it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography incorporates various forms of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the singer. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “However she did it very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see movement and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that hit. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she did it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is at London, the dates