🔗 Share this article

“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Known as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally spent time 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 became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. This rich life and legacy inspire Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a simple biography but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after relocating to the city in the year, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the United States after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with a exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when we meet in the city after a performance. Her father is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba sings at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was always requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), she found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl died in childbirth in the year, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” says Seutin.

Development and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the production (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin pulls out threads of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of personas linked with the icon to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like the form.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the singer. (She died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the similar method in this work. “We see dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• The performance is at London, 22-24 October