🔗 Share this article

“When you speak about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in 1959, Makeba was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was excluded from the US after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer the performer leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often managed by a host. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina went to prison for half a year, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in the city after a show. Her father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work 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 living room.

Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much 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 met when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl died in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the production (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the idea for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these other selves of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography incorporates multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire the youth to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to take the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates