🔗 Share this article

“If you talk about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she later served as an envoy for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. This rich life and legacy motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in the year, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with the fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often managed by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the things Seutin discovered when studying her story. “So many stories!” says she, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Her parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at the venue in the year.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was always requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass 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 legal professional in the 1950s), she discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child the girl died in childbirth in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you focus on their success and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the show (premiered in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in the show.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Seutin’s choreography includes various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (She died in the year after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about the legend? “I think she would motivate the youth to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this work. “We see dancing and listen to melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and moments that hit. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. But she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in London, the dates