Miriam Makeba V Margaret Thatcher...

November 10^th – Do you ever get the feeling you’re turning into one or other of your parents? I can well remember listening to my dad and thinking;

Yeah, yeah, back in the day…whatever…

And now? Now I’m aware that he wasn’t talking about things being better in his youth just that they suited him and his sensibilities at that time in his life, but more than that, that wrapped up in all this back in the day stuff are some givens and they’re to do with worth and value.

Miriam Makeba, who died this day in 2008, has been a person worth noting for me, even though I’m not a huge fan of her genre of music. Her life story reads like a car-crash (you can read all about it elsewhere and in better prose than mine so a quick resume will suffice).

Living through the dark days of oppression and apartheid, Ms. Makeba’s family spent years trying to scrape a living in spite of all the obstacles Mr. Whitey threw into their path. Her Xhosa Father (Mandela, Mbeki, Tutu) was treated poorly even by apartheid standards and died when Ms. Makeba was 6, and when she was only 8 days old her mother was sentenced to six months in prison just for trying to earn a crust…so Ms. Makeba was sent to prison with her. An early marriage and early motherhood for Ms. Makeba (18) was swiftly followed by the early onset of breast cancer and the early fucking off of her hubby (let’s just heap a little more difficulty on those girlish shoulders shall we). With a voice of note she was used as a singer for some jazz bands which led to her early involvement in the anti-apartheid movement and her outside of Africa profile was increased when she appeared in a film, Come Back Africa which carried a dangerous, anti-establishment message that went down like a cup of cold sick with the intellectually stunted Boers who held power in the region. Her mother died when Ms. Makeba was in the USA and, on trying to return to her mother’s funeral, was told her passport had been revoked (I’ve said this before to you guys, these fuckers, these so-called world leaders? They may be intellectual pygmies but they have a gargantuan grudge-holder,  you get the wrong side of them, cause them to look foolish and you’ll find out very swiftly that they bear this grudge…for a long, long time; Putin, Hollande, Jinping, Nazarbayev, Cameron, Obama…the whole fuzzy gang: make a note of it). Ms. Makeba’s met presidents, appeared before the U.N. against the apartheid regime and had her SA citizenship revoked (see…that grudge thing again) but shot them fuckers up the arse ’cos she was granted honorary citizenship in ten countries but not her own; didn’t quite make up for being denied a homeland; Ms. Makeba put it very eloquently;

I always wanted to leave home. I never knew they were going to stop me from coming back. Maybe, if I knew, I never would have left. It is kind of painful to be away from everything that you’ve ever known. Nobody will know the pain of exile until you are in exile. No matter where you go, there are times when people show you kindness and love, and there are times when they make you know that you are with them but not of them. That’s when it hurts.

She was very eloquent.

She’s had hits worldwide, voted 38^th in the top 100 African performers and recorded songs and albums that have influenced nations. Her only daughter died in 1985 (no mother should have to bury their children, should they?) and joined Paul Simon in the Graceland sessions and subsequent tours thereby securing the place of African music in the wider pantheon of the west’s pop/rock culture and wrote her autobiography, Makeba; My Story which was  published in multiple languages and sold worldwide. Her involvement in the Nelson Mandela saga is well documented and her appearance in the 70^th birthday celebrations in ‘88’ heaped yet more pressure on the SA government and, two years later Mr. Mandela was indeed released from prison…yup that’s the same Nelson Mandela that Margaret Thatcher called;

That grubby little terrorist.

What an inspiration that woman was.

Ms. Makeba has received limited recognition in the general consciousness of the west and, to this day, is still seen as persona non grata by the hardliners of the apartheid movements that are still active worldwide.

She suffered from arthritis for years and died of a heart attack whilst still touring, taking part in a concert organised to support the writer, Roberto Saviano who was highlighting for taking a stand against the Camorra, another word for a mafia organisation, who were wreaking havoc in his local region of Campania. Some mistakes along the way but…what a lady. She moved the women’s cause particularly that of African women forward by years.

Miley Cyrus has simulated being fucked doggie-style on stage and sparked a joint on this day in 2013 during a live performance at the MTV awards ceremony in Amsterdam. When she was asked for her reasoning about this act she said:

I just did it mostly because I knew the fans in Amsterdam would love it and they started going crazy when I did it. It was just, ‘Oh, I have this in my bag, that will be real funny’. People think I overthink things…I don’t.

No, Ms. Cyrus, no one would ever accuse you of that.

Ms. Cyrus has put the women’s movement back years.