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“When you speak about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she later served as an envoy for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in the year, she was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous vocalist the performer leading bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, she was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the details the choreographer learned when studying her story. “So many stories!” says she, when we meet in the city after a show. Her parent is Belgian and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in labor in 1985, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” says Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections contributed to the making of the show (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights elements of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas linked with the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the players on stage. Seutin’s choreography includes multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would inspire the youth to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and hear beautiful songs, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and moments that hit. This is what I respect about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is showing in London, the dates