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Makeba's secrets exposed
21/06/2004 14:06 - (SA)
Ali Mphaki
Johannesburg - "Mama Africa", Mirriam Makeba, may be the quintessential lady, but most of her fans will be disappointed to learn that she had many suitors in her youth.
This and other juicy details about her life are contained in an autobiography by legendary trumpeter Hugh Masekela entitled Still Grazing: The Musical Journey of Hugh Masekela, which will be available in South Africa this week.
The book, launched in the US last month, details his life, from childhood to career hardships and addiction, in a brutally frank and honest manner.
Masekela teamed up with American Michael Cheers to produce this must-read which is available in hard cover. Cheers is presently teaching at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.
Readers will be pleasantly surprised to learn Masekela was only 17 years old when he became romantically linked with Makeba, then 25, even though the diva had a string of lovers. In his book, Masekela says it was hard for him to get angry with Makeba "after all, she was older than I, more experienced sexually, and the darling of newspapers".
Makeba and Masekela relationship not a scandal
Interestingly, the Makeba and Masekela relationship was never portrayed as a scandal.
Masekela says Makeba did not mind young girls flirting with him but once gossip surfaced that he and a singer from a rival female band were an item, Makeba told him: "If I hear you were with that whore again, or anyone of her kind, I'll kill them."
Though Makeba and Masekela eventually split up - due to his philandering and her marriage to Sonny Pillay - they found it difficult not to be intimate whenever the chance presented itself.
Fans of both musicians will also read how Makeba popped the question "why don't we get married" after the two reconnected in New York, when both were in exile. By that stage, Makeba's marriage to Pillay had crumbled.
Though Masekela and Makeba did finally tie the knot, their marriage did not last very long.
In Masekela's words, he says he will always love her but never regretted divorcing her. "I do not know many marriages that could have survived that degree of daring infidelity," he says.
With Masekela's autobiography now available, discussions are under way regarding a countrywide tour to celebrate both a remarkable life and the publication of his autobiography.
Masekela took up the trumpet at age 14
Masekela was born in 1939 in Witbank and he began singing and playing the piano as a child. But at the age of 14, after seeing the film Young Man with a Horn, where Kirk Douglas portrays American jazz trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke, he took up the trumpet. Anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Trevor Huddleston gave him his first trumpet.
By 1956 Masekela had joined Alfred Herbert's African Jazz Revue.
Makeba, who was already enjoying major success in the US, later helped Masekela obtain admission to the Manhattan School of Music in New York. It was during this time that Masekela met Louis Armstrong.
By 1963 Masekela had recorded his first solo album, Trumpet Africaine, but his breakthrough record was his 1965 live performance, The Americanisation of Ooga Booga.
Masekela also conceived, with playwright and songwriter Mbongeni Ngema, the musical Sarafina, which found great success on Broadway in 1988.
After touring with Paul Simon's Graceland, Masekela finally returned home following the unbanning of political parties and the release of political prisoners.
In 1991 Masekela launched his first tour of South Africa called Sekunjalo - This is it! The four-month tour sold out throughout the country.
Since returning home, he has recorded five platinum albums and has collaborated with countless musicians on their albums. Masekela has also been rigorous in his commitment to rebuilding the country. Among his initiatives is Maapsa, which addresses drug rehabilitation in the creative community.
- City Press
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South Africa
