(October 2025) Episode 686 is MIRIAM MAKEBA. For years the only reason I knew her was from ads for her records printed on the sleeves of used LPs I used to buy. Turns out, she was a big deal, nicknamed “Mama Africa” for being among first African singers to achieve global fame. She got famous in the U.S. under the tutelage of Harry Belafonte (with whom she duo’d on a good album). She sang in English as well as her native Xhosa, bringing a click language to wider attention. Makeba was not shy about raising rights and justice in her songs, including against apartheid in her native country. For that she was persecuted and exiled twice, stripped of her passport by the South African government and having her visa revoked by the U.S. government for marrying civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael.

Favorite album: Sangoma

Favorite song: Novema

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Sangoma was a comeback album of traditional South African songs stripped of the chrome and strings added to her 60s albums although those are peak period (including the one with Harry Belafonte).