Mama Afrika

Quite by accident, I got to go to a very memorable concert at a very nice place called Le Poisson Rouge - The red fish, which apparently means goldfish, but the French call them red fish for some reason. My friend who's from Belgium and also half Congolese invited me last minute to this tribute concert to Miriam Makeba - better known as Mama Afrika - who had just passed away last weekend. I have to admit that I didn't know what she was talking about at the time, but as I have written about this before, I am in an adventurous "let's discover new music" and "don't turn down opportunities to try new things" phase in my life, so I said I'd go with her. I looked Makeba up in Google and found out that I really should have know about her, as she was a world-famous South African singer and performer, who singed in all different languages all around the world, was a political activist and toured with really big-name artists like Harry Belafonte and Paul Simon.

There was a line outside the venue when we got there, which is not so unusual in NYC, but for a Sunday evening, the place was crowded. There was a nice mix of people, black and white, and a great atmosphere. It was truly a celebration of a great person's life, who fought against apartheid in South Africa and for civil rights in the US while brining together all kinds of people from all around the world with her music.



The performers were mostly from Africa, some who had known her, some who admired her, people recited poetry and sang her songs, told stories about her or just showed pictures on the screen behind the stage. I felt like I was getting to know her too. The whole room went nuts when someone commented on how she got to witness the election of a black president in the US right before her death, something that apparently was a lifelong dream of hers.

And then, an older man with a cane came out to talk about how he had met her decades ago in London. It was Harry Belafonte. He is still very good-looking at 81, and incredibly well-spoken. Unfortunately, he didn't sing, but told some stories about Makeba and I think made a lot of people in the audience tear up.



And that wasn't all. After Belafonte left the stage, an even bigger star appeared, to the surprise of pretty much everyone, Paul Simon himself. I couldn't quite believe that I would get to see and hear him sing for a suggested donation of $20 at this concert.



It was quite an evening! Besides the great music, it felt amazing to be in this huge melting pot that was the bar, that are NYC, the US, and truly, the world. Where people from different continents and cultures and languages come together to celebrate something that's so human and so beautiful, even though it was quite a sad occasion, it was also wonderful, and just being there made me feel like I was part of something bigger and better, and that there was hope for humanity after all.

One of the artists who performed was a young Somali rapper, K'naan, who had escaped with his family to Harlem when he was a child. I am not a huge fan of rap, but his song "When I get older" honestly made me cry.



"When I get older, I will be stronger.
They'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag"