🔗 Share this article

“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” states Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in 1959, Makeba was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous vocalist the performer at the centre bringing her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a youngster, and move along in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba performs at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin discovered that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child Bongi died in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to attend her own mother’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the show (first staged in the city in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she pulls out threads of her life story like flashbacks, and references more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not overt in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography incorporates multiple styles of dance she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (Makeba passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “I think she would motivate the youth to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “But she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe movement and listen to melodies, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. This is what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she did it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates